Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on this plan. The first issue that jumps out at me is the reason we are discussing it, which is that women, by our physiological and psychological nature, are complex creatures and our health needs a complex response. This document makes mention of contraception, period poverty, menopause, endometriosis, breastfeeding, gynaecology, including paediatric gynaecology, maternity bereavement and fertility hubs. I could go on and on because there are so many issues.

It is not some kind of achievement for the Department to fund its own strategy. In fact, I would make the criticism that the €31 million of ring-fenced funding is slightly less than double the amount dedicated to the horse and greyhound industries. It is no great achievement.

I must say something before I go any further. Due to all of these issues and the very fact that our health, physiology and psychology are built around our ability to reproduce life, all of this has to be linked to the strategy around the national maternity hospital. Opposition to the deal on the hospital has been disgracefully portrayed as somehow being hysterical or ill informed. I regard that as patronising and misleading. To repeat what has been said many times in the House, if I said that a State-funded and State-built facility for women's reproductive health was being vested in the hands of a body that was set up and ultimately controlled by a religious order in this day and age, post repeal, one might think I was having a laugh.

It is no laugh but a very serious issue. We will not accept dismissal of our concerns around the national maternity hospital. It is bizarre that any Minister would think, given our recent past, that women should trust any assurances from the church or the State on their healthcare. The new national maternity hospital has been paid for by the public and it must be controlled, run and overseen by public authority.

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