Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion. It is recognised across all parties and none in this House that there is a need for a good maternity hospital. We all agree that we need top services in Dublin, but they are needed in the different regions also. The hospitals in Ballinasloe, Galway and Castlebar also need proper funding to make sure mothers in these areas will have safe delivery. I am aware that this is a specialised area, but what has happened is a fiasco. Whoever it was in the Department who dealt with it was never at a fair because they did not know how to engage in a bit of horse trading to solve the problem.

I cannot understand how we cannot have a 100 or 200-year lease for €1 as the State should be well able to obtain it. Is there a problem with the site? Is it tied up with the other buildings or has money been borrowed against it for other parts of the hospital? Has the Minister tried to secure a lease for a minimal amount? That is a solution. If there is a problem which cannot be solved, I agree with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae that the National Children's Hospital and a good maternity hospital should be located next to each other. We should not have put all our eggs in one basket. There is still an opportunity, in the coming weeks, to hammer out a deal. We need the hospital urgently, but it should not be at any cost. We should acknowledge that St. Vincent's University Hospital has given good service.

7 o’clock

It has been brought into disrepute with an argument over something about which there should never have been an argument. If people approached it to be able to do a deal in the way I am suggesting, it could solve the problem.

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