The board of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, decided last night to seek a meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Health Mary Harney over the decision to locate the new national children's hospital on the site of the Mater hospital.
Last night's meeting did not reverse a controversial decision taken by the hospital board last month not to co-operate with a move to the Mater site.
However, following the reading of letters from the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health to the board, members agreed the hospital should meet representatives of both.
The hospital said afterwards its board had mandated representatives of the hospital to meet officials from both the HSE and the Department of Health "with a view to finding common ground towards advancing the building of a world-class tertiary hospital for children".
The previous decision not to co-operate with plans to move to the Mater site, where all three existing children's hospitals in Dublin are to be merged into a new national children's hospital, was taken in the absence of the chairman of the hospital board, Dr Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin. He was present for last night's meeting, however, and appealed for dialogue after the earlier decision had been taken.
Tallaght hospital, which objects to having one children's hospital on the Mater site, also wants to meet Mr Ahern and Ms Harney. Last week its board, in anticipation of a meeting with both, agreed to contribute to interim discussions with the HSE on the plans for the new hospital. It wants the new hospital based across two sites with a single governance arrangement.