Master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Rhona Mahony has said plans to build a new facility on the site of St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin are "too important" to be "left to fall apart".
She said the new hospital is ready to be built and urged Minister for Health Simon Harris to ensure the contracts are signed and the initial funding is released before the end of this year.
Speaking on RTÉ's Marian Finucane Show she said: "It shouldn't be going down to the wire".
"I can't imagine anyone is going to let this hospital fall apart, it is too important.
"If this hospital is left to fall apart people have to be accountable for that."
Dr Mahony said it would be a "scandal" if a recent High Court case taken by the National Maternity Hospital against the Minister for Health had any bearing on the decision about the new hospital facility.
In September, the High Court quashed a decision by the minister to order an inquiry into patient health and welfare at the hospital.
Asked if this might have soured relations, resulting in a delay a decision to start construction of the new hospital, Dr Mahony said: "The idea that something like that, which is something that is totally unrelated, would lead to a delay would be unconscionable."
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Meanwhile, the Department of Health has issued a statement reiterating that following extensive discussions, agreement was reached between the St Vincent's Healthcare Group and the National Maternity Hospital on the relocation of the NMH to the Elm Park campus.
The statement says that the terms of the agreement provide for the establishment of a new company - The National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC.
The new company will have clinical and operational, as well as financial and budgetary independence in the provision of maternity, gynaecology and neonatal services, it continued.
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The Sisters of Charity announced in May 2017 that they intend to have no ownership or role in relation to St Vincent's Healthcare Group.
The Department of Health has been advised that the Sisters and St Vincent's Healthcare Group are advanced in making the necessary legal changes which require the approval of the Charities Regulator.
The Department is currently engaging with the hospitals in relation to the legal framework required to protect the State's investment in the new hospital. Details have been provided to the hospitals for consideration and engagement is ongoing to achieve the necessary agreement.
Protesters gathered this evening in Dublin calling for guarantees that the proposed new National Maternity Hospital will be owned and run by the State, without religious involvement.
A couple of hundred people gathered at the Spire in Dublin City Centre and were addressed by Ailbhe Smyth of the coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, and representatives from the Social Democrats, the Labour Party and People Before Profit.
Róisín Shortall of the Social Democrats said: "Last year the Sisters of Charity announced that the were withdrawing from St Vincent's and having no further involvement. That hasn't happened either.
"These are outstanding issues that need to be resolved and really the responsibility is with the Minister for Health and with the Sisters of Charity and we need to get results in that area as quickly as possible."
"The reality is that the Sisters of Charity are still centrally involved in St Vincent's Healthcare group and that is the body that the Minister is negotiating with and that has not changed. For that reason we know that when it comes to a religious owned facility, like a hospital, where a religious body owns that facility they will also control the ethos of it.
"The Constitution makes provision for that and we know the Supreme Court has upheld that right. So there is no way we can be given that reassurance when the Sisters of charity are still involved in St Vincent's."
