Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

It was nice to have a break to clear our heads. I appreciate why the Minister is saying here and on the airwaves, which is that the approximately eight hospitals that do not provide abortion are HSE-owned. I do not think it is necessarily the "gotcha" the Minister thinks it is. I think it undermines him as Minister for Health because it seems he cannot get his own State-owned hospitals to provide basic healthcare for women for which he and us campaigned and voted yet he expects us to believe that he or some other Minister with the golden share will be able to intervene in this particular hospital and insist it offers healthcare services that he cannot get hospitals under HSE management to provide. This is possibly where people are not feeling assured because the Minister's statement is only confirming people's fears that the Minister may not be able to provide for it or step in and insist on it because he does not have HSE hospitals in order.