Plans for a national children's hospital on the Mater site in Dublin were turned down by An Bord Pleanala.

Birr man offers site free of charge for children's hospital

Frank Connon from Birr is one of two brothers who this week have offered the Department of Health a site free of charge to build a national paediatric hospital on. The Connon brothers made the offer in a letter to Health Minister James Reilly last Monday in the wake of a decision by An Bord Pleanála to turn down a planning application for the new children's hospital at the Mater site in Dublin. Frank Connon, who lives with his wife Bernadette at Tullynisk in Birr, owns the 200 acre site in question with his brother Fergus. The land, situated next to Swedish superstore Ikea just off the M50 motorway in Dublin, has been in the Connon family for more than 80 years. Advantages the brothers say the land has over other sites for the project include its location, accessibility and space. A letter from the brothers to Minister Reilly dated March 5 outlines the site's suitability. "We, the owners, offer this to the NPHDB free in the hope that it will be recognised as the appropriate site and will assist in speeding up the development of the hospital," the letter states. "In terms of space, accessibility, location and cost, the site is very attractive." A report also included in the correspondence to the government outlines that a hospital on the site would be accessible by both car, plane and train, with the M50, the airport and a station on the Metro West route from the airport to Tallaght all closeby. The site also has space to facilitate a 25,000 square metre maternity hospital, research and educational facilities and further hospital requirements for the next 50 years. The greenfield site is also highlighted as an economic construction site, which could be developed at a fraction of the cost of the Mater site and within 36 months once planning permission was given. "It will be highly competitive to develop since work on a greenfield site is much simpler than complex works in a restricted site, working around a functioning hospital such as the Mater," the letter says. The site's "therapeutic view" over water, golf and the Dublin mountains is also referred to as advantageous as well as the fact that with no affiliations to the medical community the site comes with "no medical agenda".