Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that there has been a failure to invest in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin for many years.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with David McCullagh, the Dublin Central TD said that the proposal to co-locate the Rotunda with Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown was "nonsensical" and had been used as an excuse not to invest in the hospital.
Last week, An Coimisiún Pleanála overturned planning permission for a €100 million critical care unit at the Rotunda Hospital.
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.
"Unfortunately we have had now, for many years, a failure to invest properly in the Rotunda Hospital," Ms McDonald said.
"Back in 2015, that nonsensical decision to our proposal to co-locate the Rotunda with Connolly Hospital never made any sense.
"The problem with the co-location decision back then is that it has been used time and again as an excuse and a pretext not to invest in the hospital."
The Sinn Féin leader has called for clarity from the Government on investment in the Rotunda.
"One thing I know about the Rotunda and the leadership of the hospital is that they are incredibly innovative, they are incredibly ambitious and they are not short of plans and proposals, but they have never had a response or a receptive audience from Government," she said.
"What I'm asking now for is clarity from Government that the Rotunda will remain in the inner city and that everything will now be done to ensure that.
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Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has said the decision to revoke planning for a vital critical care unit in the Rotunda Maternity Hospital was met with tears and disbelief by hospital staff last Friday.
Ms Cairns asked on what planet was the conclusion reached that there was not an overwhelming public benefit to this project.
She told the Dáil that 22 women who have just given birth are currently sharing one bathroom in the Rotunda and all the neo-natal units are shoved into one small room.
Ms Cairns stated that the decision was based on outdated information provided by Government which indicated that the co-location of the Rotunda with Connolly Hospital was still on the cards.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he believes the project overwhelmingly in the public interest.
However, Mr Martin added that An Coimisiún Pleanála is independent.
"Everybody has to weigh up the pros and cons of any given decision. And in my view, in objecting to this facility, they got it wrong," he said.
'Very strong reason' needed for Rotunda to move from site
It comes after the Minister for Health said that she would need "a very strong reason to deviate" from the Rotunda Hospital remaining at its current site on Parnell Square.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said that she was very disappointed with An Coimisiún Pleanála's decision to overturn planning permission.
She said that she would need a "very, very strong reason to deviate" from the hospital remaining at its current site.
On Sunday, the Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Professor Seán Daly, ruled out moving to Connolly Hospital, saying the the Rotunda should "stay where it is".
"Our priority, the Master's priority, my priority is making sure that we take the correct steps now that are going to deliver appropriate neonatal care for the Rotunda as quickly as possible, and we will take all of the other decisions in the correct sequence after that," the minister said.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said that she will meet with the Master of the hospital in a fortnight's time to discuss legal options and further Government support.
The minister stopped short of saying she would be in favour of a judicial review of the decision, but said she would support the Master in any decision he feels is appropriate.
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"It's one of the frustrations that the Government has in relation to the planning process generally itself anyway," she said.
"I would certainly support the Master in making any of the decisions that he needs to make for the hospital and the Government will support him as best appropriate.
"The Master's concern, as is my concern, is the delivery of a neonatal unit that is sufficient for the needs of the critically unwell children and the critically premature children that need to use it."
Ms Carroll MacNeill said that she disagreed with objections made to the development due to a new wing eroding Dublin's Georgian history.
"I would disagree with their analysis and that I think that the public benefit was better served by this. The Rotunda has always been in Parnell Square," she said.
Meanwhile, Labour's spokesperson on health has said that she was "deeply, bitterly disappointed" by An Coimisiún Pleanála's decision.
Marie Sherlock accused the Minister for Health of scapegoating the planning system and An Coimisiún Pleanála.
She said the minister and her department had "one job to do" and that they "failed in that one job".
Ms Sherlock said that the critical wing at the hospital was "vitally needed".
Watch: Proposal a 'de facto replacement for existing Rotunda Hospital', says Civic Trust
CEO of the Dublin Civic Trust Graham Hickey has said that the staff of the Rotunda Hospital have been left figuratively and literally "holding the baby" over the planned extension.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that the plan is incompatible with Parnell Square, which has an "extraordinary landscape".
He said "it is a fiasco" as the plans do not match the Government's National Maternity Strategy.
Mr Hickey said that this row is a result of failures by successive governments and the Department of Health to properly plan for the co-location of the Rotunda with a Level 4 acute hospital.
He said that the Rotunda proposal for a "Critical Care Wing" is perhaps a little bit misleading because, he said, it is much more than the Critical Care Wing.
"This is a de facto replacement for the existing Rotunda Hospital. What is being proposed is a building that is larger than the entire campus of the existing Rotunda Hospital," he said.
"In fact, this is a six-level building, if one includes the plant storey up on the roof.
"And out of those six levels, a single floor is allocated to the intensive care requirements for premature babies and vulnerable babies.
"The rest of this building is in all but name a standard maternity hospital."
Mr Hickey said that Parnell Square was a "conservation area" in terms of planning parlance.
"So, by any European standard, this is an internationally important civic place in our collective imagination," he said.
Additional reporting Mícheál Lehane
