The HSE is assembling a large development site close to St James’s Hospital in Dublin for possible use as a maternity hospital. St James’s is already the planned location of a new national children’s hospital, due for completion by 2018.

The HSE has paid just over €8 million for 13.1 acres on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from the hospital campus. The site was bought by a UK property developer in 2007 for €65 million. The 88 per cent drop in capital value is among the highest recorded in the city since the property market collapsed in 2008.

The site on Davitt Road was occupied by Unilever and Lyons Tea factories which have been demolished. The land adjoins the former Blindcraft site of 0.85 of an acre already owned by the HSE. It was offered for sale by the authority in 2008 for €5 million but there were no takers. The planned amalgamation of the two pieces of land will bring the acreage up to 13.95 acres.

St James’s already has about 15 acres available for development in the hospital campus. The new site is a short distance away and is likely to be linked by a new bridge across the Grand Canal and a new access road through the Dublin City Council-owned St Michael’s Estate in Inchicore.