Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Surely, if the State owns the land and the hospital in its entirety then, as the Tánaiste stated, the State would have more influence on the governance and on the board of directors because the hospital would be entirely in the ownership the State. It is the question of the ownership of the land that has held up the reality of this hospital for years, so this is a very significant issue.

Returning to why it is such a very significant issue, this is because we do not trust the church. This is a fair enough statement to make given the legacy we have had in this country and given statements made by the head of the Religious Sisters of Charity herself, Sister Patricia Lenihan, who said last year that the hospital will maintain the ethos of Mother Mary Aikenhead. The Minister has to square that circle for the women of Ireland because it is a very important issue given the legacy of this State in its treatment of women and it cannot just be parked because everybody is just paranoid. Another way of describing paranoia is a heightened sense of awareness and that there is a collective heightened sense of awareness here among the women of this country that we do not want the church having any say whatsoever in our maternity care. There is a principle that flies in the face of Sláintecare, which Deputy Shortall and others worked very hard on, which is that we need to move to a fully State-owned and controlled healthcare service. If we are spending millions of euro on this, why do we not pursue the ownership of this hospital? That is why I am asking the Minister publicly to call on the sisters to hand over ownership of the land. I understand legal niceties but these have gone on for too long.