Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The architect's plans for the national maternity hospital, if anyone puts them up on the wall and has a look at them, show a corridor marked "private clinics". There are five rooms on the plans marked "private consult". We have a two-tier health service and it is two-tier in maternity services as well. I reject the Minister's point that there is equality. If anyone goes private, there is continuity of care. If they go public, that is very unlikely. A private patient who arrives for prenatal appointments does not have to wait whereas a public patient has to wait. It is two-tier. I am asking the Minister to comment and to state whether he agrees there is a two-tier care system within the health service or within maternity services in the context of planning for the future and the development of the national maternity hospital.

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