Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is not only in the National Maternity Hospital that facilities are suboptimal. I could bring the Taoiseach to the Rotunda Hospital Dublin and could recite for him the endless process that this hospital has endured to secure funding to carry on safe service provision. I see that the Minister is leaving the Chamber now and he is well aware of what I am talking about.

I am trying to figure out what the Taoiseach means in his response because it is a case of the State funding this infrastructure and facility but it is in fact the people or the taxpayer who are funding this.

The Taoiseach says he is in favour of State spend, meaning State ownership, but will he be even more explicit than that? A message today has to go to the Sisters of Charity, with the greatest of respect to them. As people who represent the citizens and taxpayers of the State, we need to say loudly and clearly that the site in question must be in the ownership of the State-----

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