The chief executive of the Health Service Executive said today he was "delighted" at the offer from a private consortium to build a children's hospital on a not-for-profit basis.
Noel Smyth, whose offer to build a new children's hospital in south west Dublin has been rejected by the Department of Health.
However, Prof Brendan Drumm said the HSE could not deal with it as a "first line submission".
Speaking on RTÉ Radio this morning, Mr Drumm added that the proposed site was "a long way distant from any acute hospital, and we'd been asked, as a result of the international review carried out, to find a site that at least . . . was closer on a general hospital site."
He said this had presented "a significant problem for us therefore we could not deal with it as a first line submission".
But he went on to say that he understood that the consortium, headed by property developer Noel Smyth, was willing to make the offer to build the hospital on a non-profit basis on any site that the review comes forward with.
"That's something we would be very attracted to and I've no doubt their expertise would be very helpful in bringing forward what can be a wonderful development for this country," added Mr Drumm.
He said he was "just delighted to see people like Mr Smyth come forward. The fact that that commitment has been made an a not-for-profit approach is, for us, very encouraging".