Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----maternity care, vital procedures and primary care. In light of what I have just outlined, there is an urgent need for the Minister for Health to make a full statement to the Dáil on this issue. There have been conflicting accounts from the Government in respect of funding requests from the HSE in respect of the health service. It is essential that the Minister come before the Dáil to set out the position in clear and unequivocal terms, particularly in the context of contacts he has had with and the nature of requests made to him by the HSE.

I have raised the matter of the Constitutional Convention with both the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach but I have not got very far with either of them. It is clear that the Government is not going to hold referendums on a number of proposals and recommendations made by the convention, much less schedule debates on the issues involved. Will the Tánaiste at least clarify the Government's position on the removal of the women-in-the-home clause from the 1937 Constitution, as the convention recommended? Does the Government share the view that this clause should be removed from the Constitution?

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