The Late Late Toy Show may have aired two weeks ago, but my six-year-old daughter Molly has had it on repeat every day since. I don’t mind when we’re in Christmas mode, but when it’s still playing in February, that’s when I start to tear my hair out.

So at this stage, I watched the Toy Show a fair few times but no matter how often it plays, there is one part that always stops me in my tracks. It’s when I see the delight on the faces of the children who get to leave hospital for a few hours to enjoy the toys on the set in RTÉ.

This year though, I also felt anger, that these children were returning to hospitals that are for the most part outdated. On Thursday 4 December, the day before the Toy Show was aired, it was announced that there had been yet another delay to the opening of the new National Children’s Hospital at St James’s, missing its 16th deadline.

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The reality behind these headlines is that sick children are being treated in hospitals such as CHI at Temple Street, which opened in 1872, over 150 years ago, while the doors of our modern state-of-art new children’s hospital remain closed.

That is not to take away from the marvellous work that is done in CHI in Temple Street and CHI at Crumlin and all the other children’s wards in hospitals across the country. A friend of mine who recently spent time in Temple Street with her son told me of the fantastic care they received while they were there – despite the fact that it was obvious to her, and the parents around her, that the staff were under ferocious pressure. “I don’t know how anyone works in that environment,” she told me, “and they were all working so hard.”

The latest information says we’re looking at a completion date in late 2026, potentially early 2027, while my friend said whispers in Temple Street were that is could be 2028

Sick children and their parents, along with the medical staff, have been failed time and time again as we await the eventual opening of this hospital. Building on the site of St James’s Hospital in Dublin began in 2016, with a scheduled completion date of November 2022. Three years later and we’re still waiting. The latest information says we’re looking at a completion date in late 2026, potentially early 2027, while my friend said whispers in Temple Street were that is could be 2028. And the costs during that time have ballooned from €987m to €2.2bn – and rising. Irish children deserve so much more.

So this year, our Christmas wish in Irish Country Living is for the Government, the builder BAM and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) to get their act together and deliver on this much-needed and overdue project.

To the medical staff, and organisations like Aoife’s Clown Doctors and all the volunteers that keep children in hospital smiling, keep up the hard work, it doesn’t go unnoticed.

But most importantly, to any child in hospital this Christmas, we know that Santa will visit wherever you are, and hopefully, there will be a shiny new hospital for him to open next year.