Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to welcome somebody very special to the House for two reasons. A young man named James Kirwan is seated in the Visitors Gallery, he is from Shankill and he is a liver and kidney double transplant patient. Since 2006 he has never looked back after his transplant operation. He is on the youth advisory council of the new children's hospital which is only right. His attendance here today parallels with Dr. Eilish Hardiman's appearance in The Irish Times, on "Morning Ireland" and in other press about the unanimous agreement on the children's hospital being sited at St. James's.
We have had many arguments here about the matter but I shall not go back into the matter. Mr. James Kirwan has been on the council as a young man, a teenager and now as an adult. He agrees that the hospital should be located at St. James's and I am inclined to agree with him due to his experience of spending most of his life in hospital. As he said to me this morning, he will remain in hospital as an adult because that is how he will stay alive, and he is happy to remain there. He is on his way to university also. It is important that somebody like him who was put on the council by the Government is here today. He is the type of person that should influence policy, politics and how we move forward in health. I congratulate and welcome him to the House. I hope that one day he may be here as a politician.