Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

(a) To delete the following: "— women’s reproductive healthcare would be put at risk and their safety endangered if subject to Catholic ownership and ethos;"

and (b) To insert the following after "the new hospital be fully owned and governed by the State":

"and further:

— commits to no private healthcare services being carried out on the site of the new National Maternity Hospital, pursuant to the Private Members' Motion on National Maternity Services [Vol. 983, No. 8] brought in June 2019 by then Fianna Fáil Opposition Spokesperson on Health Stephen Donnelly, who is now the incumbent Minister for Health;

— calls on the Government to explain the reasons why, on occasion, in cases of medical negligence, brought against the National Maternity Hospital, the State has also provided, at a financial cost, legal defence to private clinics named alongside the National Maternity Hospital as defendants in certain court cases and to commit to ensuring that this does not happen going forward;

— criticises the continued spikes in cost of the National Maternity Hospital project, rising from an initial estimate of €150 million to €350 million, and now to in excess of €800 million, and calls for the Minister to come before the Dáil to explain the more than 500% increase in the projected cost of the new Hospital; and

— calls for the full provision of financial estimates and figures to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach."

Yesterday in the courts, liability was admitted by the defendants in a case taken by a couple whose healthy unborn baby was aborted in the National Maternity Hospital after they were wrongly told their son had Edwards syndrome in March 2019.

Every party member who has spoken in the House today on the National Maternity Hospital has been completely silent about this case. Over the past two years, I have heard of no other political party raising this case in the Dáil. These parties need to ask themselves why they have remained silent. Christopher's parents were incredibly courageous in fighting against all the odds for justice for their son. They have been treated shockingly by senior staff in the National Maternity Hospital and two Ministers for Health. For two years, Christopher's parents did their utmost to simply identify this threat to public health to ensure the necessary changes were made to make sure this would never happen again. I have raised this in the Dáil over and over again with the Taoiseach and Ministers; none of them delivered on the simple request to have an investigation regarding what happened to Christopher. They have not carried out the necessary changes to ensure that more couples do not find themselves in this situation. I now call on the Minister to hold a full public investigation into what happened.

It is also astounding that the couple was referred for a test from the National Maternity Hospital to the Merrion Fetal Health clinic, a private clinic run by the obstetricians themselves. It is stranger still, and this is an incredible situation, that the State announced at the time it would cover the legal costs, not just for the public hospital but for the private hospital too, which is an unprecedented move. It is imperative that the new national maternity hospital in St. Vincent's is a fully public hospital. We should not just have separation of church and State but separation of the State from private facilities operating on those grounds.

I also raise a point about the language used in the motion. It may not have been purposeful, but it happened nonetheless. The Social Democrats motion states that the Catholic ethos is a threat to the health of women. This is a gross insult to millions of practising Catholics in Ireland. Some of this language, not necessarily used by the Social Democrats, but by others, including the media, has bordered on significantly intolerant and sectarian. I ask Members to moderate their language. Last week, teachers came before an Oireachtas committee and stated that practising Catholics in schools are being singled out for bullying at the moment. Many people around the country who are Catholics feel Ireland is becoming a cold place for them. As a State, we are celebrating a whole sector of society being taken out of the closet. We should not seek with our language to put another sector of society into the closet in this particular debate. The Republic of Ireland should be pluralist, a republic where everybody, no matter what their colour, creed or orientation, should be able to be who they are to the full extent, without fear or favour.

My colleague, Deputy Matt Shanahan, asked me to raise the incredible ongoing situation of partners of mothers still being unable to attend appointments, or the birth of their children, in certain hospitals in this State. It is absolutely wrong that this debate has been going on and on for months, without the Government getting it together. Let this go no further.

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