Health Minister Mary Harney has said the new children's hospital will be state-of-the-art when it opens as planned in 2014 at the Mater Hospital site in Dublin.
The Minister said the facility was about more than a building, it was about the 'expertise inside'.
She was addressing a European conference on children in hospital at Dublin Castle this morning.
Minister Harney said planning for the hospital beside the Mater in Dublin city centre had followed 'best international practice' and would open in the third quarter of 2014.
Critics of the project, who picketed the conference this morning, say it is being built in the wrong location and does not suit the needs of Ireland's children.
