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

I do not understand this business of the next month and I do not think anyone else does either. On Sunday, there will be another major demonstration from 2 p.m. at Parnell Square, organised by Parents for Choice, to ensure that we try to get it through to the Minister and the rest of the Cabinet that they do not get where the rest of the country is at. The vast majority wants to move to a situation where we can separate the church from the State. That is clear. It is about the fundamental democratic structure under which we should live in 2017. It will not happen overnight and we have no intention of seizing hospitals under the noses of those who run them; hospitals which, by and large, we own and which the Minister listed. We have no intention of sneaking in during the night to undermine people who provide services. However, as with the prayer debate we had last night, we should go forward on a different footing and start by pronouncing that the brand new, state-of-the-art national maternity hospital which is urgently needed and which will cost the taxpayer €300 million is not going to be subject in any way to the input and control of the Catholic Church. In particular, I refer to a discredited order like the Sisters of Charity. Can the Minister guarantee that?

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