Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I disagree with that. This process has to come to an end at some stage. We have to address all the issues and determine when, and if, it is possible to proceed. There is not much sense having the Mulvey agreement, in having gone through a procedure and in having done so in great detail and after long and arduous debates and examination. There is not much sense having that if we are going to say we are going to review that now and somebody else will review the review. This could go on forever. I was a member of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and the urgent need for a modern national maternity service in Ireland, capable of standing up internationally, was brought home to us in a very forceful manner. Can we come to a decision whereby the project can proceed to the satisfaction of all concerned? In other words, the State has to be assured, which I understand the Mulvey agreement provided for, that the hospital will be fully independent, that any State investment going into it will be fully independent and that procedures carried out in it will be at the behest of the State and nobody else. However, since then, the "what if" has started.

I am concerned that we may find that in two or three years down the road, we will have a different location. Medical politics will take over and we will then have a third or fourth location. I will cut to the chase by asking do we abandon this site or proceed with it? That is the issue.