Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is committed to the national maternity hospital relocation project which involves the development of a new maternity hospital on the campus of St. Vincent's University Hospital at Elm Park. The new hospital will be funded by public money and is included in Project Ireland 2040. The development will represent a flagship project as part of the national maternity strategy and will constitute the largest single investment ever made in maternity services in Ireland.

It is vitally important that the legal and governance arrangements associated with this significant State investment are robust. A draft legal framework is currently being finalised and that will ensure that the State investment in the new hospital will be protected and that the new maternity hospital will be clinically and operationally independent of St. Vincent's University Hospital. Once finalised, the proposals will be submitted for consideration to the Government, the national maternity hospital and St. Vincent's Healthcare Group. The Minister for Health wants to assure the House that patient care in the new hospital will be delivered without religious, ethnic or other distinction and that any medical procedure that is legal in this State will be carried out there.

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