Campaigners behind an alternative location for the new National Children’s Hospital say children will die if the current plans go ahead.

The group Connolly for Kids claims doctors who are caring for sick children do not want the hospital to be built in Dublin city centre.

Instead, they are campaigning for it to be built at Connolly Hospital beside the M50, sdaying it would then be co-located with Connolly Adult Hospital and the new Rotunda Maternity Hospital.

The new hospital based on the grounds of St James’ Hospital (site pictured below) is expected to be completed by 2020.

Advocates claim it offers unparalleled facilities as the largest adult teaching hospital.

However Jim Sheehan from Connolly for Kids thinks the site is not safe for everyone.

He said: “For example, children whose diaphragm is not properly developed find it very hard to survive outside the womb once they’re born.

“This cohort of people should be in a maternity hospital adjacent (to the Children’s Hospital). It should be a full-blown maternity hospital, not just a small little unit (within the Children’s Hospital).”

Valerin O’Shea, also of Connolly for Kids, said: “We know this hospital will be an unmitigated disaster with terrible consequences. Children will die.”