What planning permission does the National Children's Hospital have?
One parent permission: An Bord Pleanala granted the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board a ten-year strategic-infrastructure consent on 26 April 2016 (ref PA0043) for the 473-bed hospital at St James's, a 53-bed family accommodation unit, a research and innovation centre and satellite centres at Tallaght and Connolly, subject to 17 conditions. Since then the Board has decided eight alteration requests under section 146B of the Planning and Development Act - every one ruled not a material alteration - and one pre-application consultation was withdrawn in 2019. An earlier scheme at the Mater campus was refused in 2012 over its impact on the Dublin skyline.
Every filing on the record
The Mater-campus scheme (16 storeys, 108,356 sq.m). Refused for a 'profound negative impact on the appearance and visual amenity of the city skyline' - the decision that moved the project to St James's.
The parent consent: 473-bed hospital (118,113 sq.m) with below-ground services, a 53-bed Family Accommodation Unit and the Children's Research and Innovation Centre at St James's, plus satellite centres at Tallaght (4,466 sq.m) and Connolly (5,093 sq.m). Ten-day oral hearing; inspector's report of 293 pages recommended a grant.
First s.146B alteration: reconfigured basement plant areas, parking, waste and facilities-management layouts at levels B01/B02 (+1,256 sq.m internal, all subterranean).
Connolly satellite: car parking, drainage layout, sculpture, generator.
Pre-application consultation for 'proposed amendments to the National Paediatric Hospital', lodged weeks after the cost controversy peaked; withdrawn without a case.
Internal floor areas, elevations and facade, roof plan, external landscaping - a floor-area change of less than one per cent.
Tallaght satellite: red-line boundary, car-parking layout, elevations.
Landscape design, artwork, entrance plazas, facilities tunnel, a new moat bridge, helipad and emergency-department canopy, traffic management.
Family Accommodation Unit changes agreed with the operating charity, including a switch to electric air-source heat pumps.
The latest alteration: fire-tender access changes, winter-garden water features removed, helipad cladding revised, facade details amended, one window omitted.
Every alteration to the 2016 permission has travelled through section 146B, the mechanism for changing the terms of a strategic-infrastructure consent - and in eight decided cases across eight years, the Board has never found an NPHDB request to be material. The full analysis is in the brief: The children's hospital, as told by its planning file.
The Tallaght and Connolly satellite centres had no separate planning applications - both were elements of the single PA0043 permission. CHI at Connolly opened to patients on 31 July 2019; CHI at Tallaght's outpatient and emergency-care unit opened on 15 November 2021.
Condition 2 of the 2016 order gave the permission a ten-year life, to April 2026. Condition 4 fixed the parking regime, including a minimum of 675 patient and visitor spaces.
The courts: no judicial review of any of the planning decisions was identified. The litigation that has surrounded the project - the contractor's High Court proceedings and conciliation over hundreds of contract claims - is contract law, not planning; it never touched the consent chain above.
The campus keeps filing: the Board of St James's Hospital (the wider campus operator, distinct from the NPHDB) commenced a Burns Unit phase-2 alteration in January 2026 (DCC ref WEB5451/25) and had rooftop telecoms works decided in 2026 (WEB1890/26).
What to watch next
- An opening date: as of April 2026 reporting, none was confirmed; the Minister expressed hope in December 2025 for patients by Christmas 2026 (RTE, Irish Times).
- Any further section 146B filings at An Coimisiun Pleanala as commissioning proceeds.
- New commencement notices and applications on the wider St James's campus.
Core documents
The primary sources behind this tracker - reports, orders and official records, linked directly for researchers.
- PA0043 case file (An Bord Pleanala)
- PA0043 inspector's report, 293pp (PDF)
- PA0043 board order (PDF)
- Mater refusal order, 29N.PA0024 (PDF)
- Government approval of the 2.24bn budget (gov.ie, 13 Feb 2024)
- PwC review of the cost escalation (gov.ie, 9 Apr 2019)
- Dail written answer on the Phase A start (PQ 4788/19)
Method: compiled from the public planning register as ingested by PlanningLeads; updated 16 July 2026. Registers move as cases progress - always check the live record before relying on a status. Organisation campuses only; no personal data is reported.