Ahern allays fears for Protestant hospital

THE Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is being urged by leading non-RC clerics to "think again" about the siting of a new national children's hospitaat a location that they say would be to the detriment of the Republic's onlProtestant teaching hospital at Tallaght in Dublin< href="/80256fa1003e05c1/httppublicpages/854dda8687568e2480257172004fd890?opendocumentNews, 19 May).At the heart of the matter is the distinctive Protestant ethos of Tallaghtwhich, unlike other state hospitals, does not have an "ethics committee" timpose Roman Catholic codes of medical practice. The distinctive charter oTallaght is the exclusive doctor-patient relationship.A delegation led by the Primate of All Ireland, Dr Robin Eames, which alsincluded Presbyterian and Methodist leaders, met the Taoiseach and the Ministefor Health, Mary Harney, last week, to plead that the new hospital should badjacent to Tallaght. There are fears that it could be located elsewhere, anthat Tallaght could be downgraded.Dr Eames said after the meeting that the delegation had proposed locatinone part of the new hospital at Tallaght and the other on the Northside, thumaintaining Tallaght as a tertiary teaching hospital. Both Mr Ahern and MHarney gave "an unequivocal assurance that we have no grounds for fears thathe charter of the Tallaght hospital is in any way being eroded", Dr Eames sai