The Master of the Rotunda Hospital has ruled moving to Connolly Hospital after its €100 million critical care unit had its planning overturned this week.
The new wing would have provided 80 extra hospital bedrooms as well as a new theatre and connections to the existing entrance and main hospital buildings.
An Coimisiún Pleanála upheld two appeals against the council's ruling by the Dublin Civic Trust and an individual, while rejecting the recommendation of its own planning inspector to grant planning permission for the project.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Professor Seán Daly said he believes the Rotunda hospital "should stay where it is".
"The Rotunda is an essential part of Dublin inner city," he said.
The Government announced it was putting in place a plan for the Rotunda to relocate to Connolly Hospital in 2015.
However, Mr Daly said he does not believe "it will ever happen".
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"Nothing the HSE has done between 2015 and now suggests we will move to Connolly.
"That decision was made in 2015, since 2015 Connolly has not been upgraded to a Level 4 hospital.
"Everybody accepts that co-location has to be do a Level 4 hospital," he said.
Mr Daly said the Rotunda Hospital is "much more closely aligned to the Mater Hospital".
"No woman has died in the Rotunda in 20 years
"We have very close associations with the Mater. They are a Level 4 hospital. They support us incredibly
"Because of that we are looking to develop even closer links to the Mater Hospital," he said.
Decision to overturn planning 'incredibly disappointing'
Mr Daly said the decision to overturn planning for its new wing was "incredibly disappointing".
He said the Rotunda does not currently have appropriate infrastructure in place "because viability is becoming earlier and earlier, the challenges are becoming more and more".
He said babies who weigh as "little as a pound" are cared for "all in one room".
"There is literally a metre between one baby and the other. This is not 21st century neo-natal care," he said.
"It can have an impact both in terms of the outcomes for those babies and particularly for their families.
"Couples come in, parents come in, they can't have time with their babies."
He said the length of time these "very, very fragile babies spend with us is increasing".
"The opportunity for infection or some other clinical scenario to occur increases, no doubt about that," he said.
He added: "We are in the same planning structure as someone who is looking to build a hotel.
"That doesn't seem reasonable."
Mr Daly said he has written to the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill on the issue.
"There is outrage in Government and on the Opposition benches about this decision.
"It makes no clinical sense," he said,
The Master said they are looking at all options including submitting a judicial review or a smaller scaled-back version of the wing.
He said the development would help to "preserve the building".
"This was always a hospital site, it was never anything other than a hospital site," he added.
'All options on table', says Tánaiste
Speaking on the same programme, Tánaiste Simon Harris said "all options are on the table" to get the plan for the Rotunda Hospital's critical wing back on track.
He said he was "beyond disappointed" and "kind of angry" that its planning was overturned.
"This is about premature babies. It's about them and their mums. It's about providing them with infrastructure," he said.
Mr Harris said he discussed the issue with Ms Carroll MacNeill yesterday.
"Government will look at all of the options to get this project back on track," he added.
He appealed to the public and organisations to "attach a real importance to the public good".
"Because sometimes, in urgent situations, you cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good," he said.
Mr Harris said: "Organisations, just because they have a right to, shouldn't feel they have to submit a submission or an objection. "
The Tánaiste said he can not thing of anything important than the "safety and wellbeing of vulnerable young babies".
