Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----to our mother and whatever new sibling had arrived at that point. The hospital was built in 1892. Women are going in at the most vulnerable point in their lives and Holles Street is absolutely not fit for purpose. When the Minister announced last November there was going to be a relocation he received great accolades and there was great fanfare, and deservedly so if the details were what we thought they were. However, the devil is in the detail, the details were not worked out properly and now it is a mess of the Government's own making. It has not been open and transparent and it has caused massive confusion and anger among the public.

Everybody agrees that a new maternity hospital is urgently needed. To hear over the past week that clinicians have resigned from boards as they have genuinely held concerns about the future ownership of the maternity hospital is extremely worrying. I and my party find it very hard to believe the State would not own any maternity facility in which it is investing at least €300 million. The ownership would absolutely have to reflect this investment by the State.

The Mulvey report, to which my colleague has referred, forms the basis of what is yet to be negotiated as a legal deal between Holles Street, the HSE and St. Vincent's group. This surely would allow an opportunity to lock down the concerns on absolute clinical and corporate governance independence. The new hospital must be completely ethically independent of any religion. The Mulvey report also allows the Government to negotiate a line that should and will reflect the taxpayers' investment. I understand from recent coverage a CPO was not legally possible at the time of the negotiations, but surely a 999 year lease may help to resolve the ownership issue. We must acknowledge the land is owned by the sisters and they are donating use of it to the State. Certainly locating the maternity hospital with a tertiary hospital is recommended best practice. It is also a teaching hospital and located close to UCD.

Fianna Fáil also believes any private income from maternity patients should be State owned, as is the practice now in Holles Street. Many, if not all, of us in the House have received many e-mails and contacts over the past week on this issue. Unfortunately it is the case the redress scheme and the dubious history of the religious orders with regard to mothers and babies has been caught up in this. I accept it is a separate issue but, unfortunately, in the minds of the Irish people and the taxpayers these issues cannot be separated. We absolutely have to do our very best to give comfort to those who are concerned and rightly so.

The Minister has asked for a month. This month needs to be put to the best possible use to make this division. It is very clear what the people need and want. Having a very strict division between State and religion to ensure all the patients in the many years to come, including expectant mothers, mothers, young children and infants before and after birth, have the very best possible support and medical care not connected to a religious ethos.

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