Children's Health Ireland (CHI) is due be integrated into the HSE by 2027, it has been confirmed.
Legislation will be needed to make the change which means it will take a number of years to complete.
It follows a period of controversy for CHI over governance issues and issues around spinal surgery and scoliosis waiting lists.
CHI is currently an independent, separate entity to the HSE that operates the three children's hospitals at Tallaght, Crumlin and Temple Street.
It will also be responsible for operating the new National Childen's Hospital (NCH), which is due to open next year and will incorporate the three existing hospitals.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said today that as Ireland moves towards the opening of the NCH, it needs to plan for integrated paediatric healthcare and the policy direction for CHI.
"The background of CHI was the integration of three very different paediatric hospitals with a view to moving to a single dedicated specialist paediatric hospital.
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"We are very close to that hospital being delivered and operational and it is therefore time to further integrate paediatric care formally into the HSE," she said.
Minister Carroll MacNeill also said that Dr Yvonne Traynor, an existing HSE board member, has been appointed as CHI chairperson, replacing Dr Jim Browne who stepped down earlier this year.
Former CEO of Barnardos Fergus Finlay and Suzanne Garvey, Director of Nursing and Director of Clinical Hospital Operations at the Beacon Hospital, have joined the board.
The Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group said today it wants transparency from Government on what led to the decision to subsume the CHI into the HSE.
It described the decision as a U-turn by Government, adding that it wants to meet the Minister for Health to discuss the developments.
