Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise, but I have read the report and I am glad there was a meeting last night about the National Maternity Hospital moving from Holles Street to St. Vincent’s hospital. It is antiquated and I am worried. The last time we had a meeting about the maternity hospitals here, I asked whether we could tell mothers and mothers-to-be that our hospitals were safe. On reading the repots, I am still worried. Yesterday, I was at a committee meeting here with the Ombudsman, who said a protocol had been worked out with the hospitals around complaints and procedures. The last time we had a meeting about it, we did not hear there was a procedure. We heard that in the hospitals there was some kind of complaints procedure and a management board. While there seemed to be many boards, complaints up the line were not dealt with. This is what is worrying.

Years ago, I lived in Navan and we, as young mothers and pregnant women, knew something was going on in Drogheda. It was known among mother groups, although we did not have much choice. We know there are problems in the smaller provincial hospitals. Somebody asked me whether, in 20 or 30 years' time, we will be saying we knew all this, but covered it up and failed to solve it. Why was the fact that the Ombudsman had worked out a protocol not mentioned here?