The State spent just over €40 million on planning the new children's hospital that never was, new HSE figures reveal.

The HSE, in a recent letter to the Public Accounts Committee, said to date €40.3 million, including VAT, has been spent on the children's hospital project at the Mater site in Dublin.

The original plan to build the new hospital at the Mater was abandoned following a planning rejection by An Bord Pleanala in February of last year, and after a review process established by Health Minister James Reilly subsequently led to St James's being chosen as an alternative site.

The ex-VAT expenditure of €33.5 million on the Mater plan dates from May 2007, when the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board was established.

The HSE said the bulk of this expenditure on the unbuilt hospital was taken up by €20.3 million on a business services team, €5.1 million on an integrated design team and €2.6 million on a project management services team.

These payments were made under contacts awarded under public procurement, on a fixed price basis, and these contracts ceased on foot of the Government decision last November to locate the new hospital on the St James's site, the HSE said.

The remaining payout of €5.5 million was under a number of headings including executive costs of €1.7 million, planning-related expenditure of €1.5 million, €700,00 on legal costs and Board members' fees of €100,000.

Health Minister James Reilly has said some of what had been spent on planning and designing the Mater project could be re-used for the St James's project, but the bulk of it had been 'lost' with the decision not to build on the Mater site.

The St James's children's hospital project has yet to apply for planning permission applied for and is unlikely to be completed until around 2019.