Dr. Rhona Mahony:

I do not want to take up too much time but I would like to explain why I am satisfied and why I say with confidence that I am not fearful about any religious ethos and am absolutely sure that all of the services that are legally permissible, all of the services that women need, will be provided in this new hospital.

We have had a debate about this quagmire of companies. It has been suggested that the national maternity hospital being a separate company is a bad thing but it is actually a really good thing. The Mulvey agreement fell apart for its first two mediations because we were going to be a branch of St. Vincent's and I very much wanted us to be an independent company. People have described us as a subsidiary but we are a separate legal entity. I just want to go through some of the layers. This is a company that is dedicated to the provision of healthcare for women. It is actually different from the other hospitals in Ireland. It is different from the HSE hospitals where one cannot mandate for a termination to take place where one does not have all of the layers of protection. This is a company that has been designed to deliver care.

If I may, I would just like to go through all of the layers because I think it is important. I would also like to address, again, the fact that the nuns are gone because it is central-----