Simon Harris launched the Phoenix Children’s Hospital project last year with the help of local children

Plans to call a new children’s hospital the Phoenix Children’s Hospital have been dropped after criticism and threats of legal action.

Simon Harris announced yesterday that he did not want the name to cause confusion or controversy and suggested that it be called National Children’s Hospital Ireland instead.

The health minister had said in October that the Phoenix Children’s Hospital was the preferred name for the €1.2 billion facility on the campus of St James’ Hospital in Dublin.

The suggestion was criticised with medical chiefs warning that it was insensitive to parents of deceased children whose organs were incinerated after being kept without permission.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital, an academic centre in the United States, also threatened to take legal action. Mr Harris said: “I have