The Kettle's Boyled: It is big, and it is beautiful

I was privileged to be given a tour of the new National Children’s Hospital last week, and it is impressive. Forget the negative commentary, most of it politically driven; it is useful to focus on what has been delivered, and what is coming down the line.

The hospital will be fully in the hands of Children’s Health Ireland early in 2026. The project underway right now is the merger and integration of three hospitals and workforces to create single teams and ways of working, within a new national network of joined-up paediatric care. The building is probably the easy bit.

That building itself is finished, an enormous structure with 6,150 rooms, including 380 individual en-suite rooms, each with a couch that converts to a comfortable bed to allow a family member to stay with the child.

There are a further 93-day beds for short term attendance, and a 53-unit family accommodation centre, all on site.

Of the 1,000 parking spaces, 675 are dedicated to families. It was clear to me after just a few minutes walking around the site that a lot of care has gone into ensuring that the child and their family was at the centre of the design process at every stage.

There are four acres of outdoor space with fourteen individual gardens and courtyards. Much of the playground equipment is designed to be incorporated into exercise programmes that form part of a child’s recovery programme.

Apart from the physical building, the project included the delivery of an entirely digital hospital system, including a new healthcare record system, to be ready on the day of opening.

Every piece of equipment is connected. There will be no more charts hanging on the ends of beds, no more scribbled notes. All information is digital and is available instantly to the medical staff.

The digitisation of the systems includes an electronic tablet system to allow patients to stream videos, access their schoolwork and even order food.

Instead of having standard meals dished up, a child can order what he/she wants, and it will be prepared freshly for them, considering food allergies and dietary needs. It is estimated this will cut food waste from the current 50% to near zero and will pay for itself.

The new hospital is more than a hospital, it is a school, a research centre, and an hotel. It is an airport, with its heliport expecting an initial 200 landings a year. It is bigger than Dundrum Town Centre, with an internal ‘street’ longer than Dublin’s Grafton Street. It is big, and it is beautiful.

Last week’s news reported President Trump’s spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on vanity projects, triumphal arches and marble halls. In Ireland, we are spending our money on one of the world’s best child healthcare facilities, something to be proud of. I know which one I would choose, every time.