Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is ironic that I have five minutes courtesy of Deputy Mattie McGrath and I thank him.

There is not a substance strong enough to calm me down after listening to the nature of this debate. We have tabled three Private Members' motions in less than a year. We have used our Questions on Promised Legislation. We have used every possible democratic procedure to bring pressure to bear on the Government to have a debate and when we have the debate, not a single female TD from the Government side comes in to participate. Not alone that, but we have male politicians coming in, for whom I have the greatest respect on a personal basis, using the time to obfuscate, to confuse, and to talk about a strategy that was discussed earlier today and not the issue, which is the ownership of the national maternity hospital.

The speech from the Minister, on a benign interpretation, is patronising in the extreme with a narrative designed to confuse and to place the blame on someone else for a failure to take action on this important subject - a new maternity hospital in the 21st century. On a malign interpretation, it is positively insulting that he would use, in a three-page script, a page and a half to give us a background and to tell me and my colleagues here how important this is when we have begged, implored and stood up here to state repeatedly let us build a national maternity hospital on a public site owned and run by the State.

The Minister used a letter from doctors in relation to misinformation. He did not clarify that he agrees with those doctors but he takes up his contribution to tell us what they say. They tell us that it would be a "tragedy", but the Minister did not use that line, if it did not go ahead. We all think it would be wrong if the hospital did not go ahead. There is a history here.

Let us quickly consider the history. In 2008, KPMG recommended the co-location. In 2013, the former Minister, Dr. James Reilly, announced the move. Since May 2013, there has been a delay, unacceptable on every level but not caused by the Opposition. How has it been caused? Let us look briefly in the time I have courtesy of Deputy Mattie McGrath. Because of the disinformation that is going out from here today, let us look at what happened. In April 2017, The Irish Timesreported that the Sisters of Charity will own the new publicly-funded national maternity hospital, and the budget is €300 million. By May 2017, after public outrage, we are told, after a month of sustained public and political opposition, the Religious Sisters of Charity announced they were going to withdraw. They kindly tell us they are going to give it as a gift to the country but they do not give it as a gift. A new company is supposedly formed, and nothing to do with openness or accountability. We still have not received that gift. Maybe the gentleman here might ask why did that gift not become a gift and why the national maternity hospital has not been built on that site that was being gifted.

What have we? We have loads of questions here from all of the Opposition Members regarding the nature of this and the Minister comes in here today and gives us reassurances. I do not want reassurances. I want to make up my own mind based on documents before me in an open and accountable fashion and that has not happened.

We were looking at a nine-year lease with a 50-year option to renew. We were looking at a 909-year lease. We were looking at a 199-year lease. We are doing all this because the Religious Sisters of Charity or their agents have absolutely refused to give over the site, either as a gift or to sell it. The question has to be asked, what is behind that refusal? Perhaps the Minister might look up today and tell us what is behind that refusal.

How dare he come in and make a speech like that after us struggling for so long to bring some openness and accountability to this? How dare he do that on the backs of women and children who have suffered to get a national maternity strategy 100 years after 1916? In 2021, we found that it was not even funded. It is only being funded from 2021 on the backs of women such as the late Savita Halappanavar in Galway, Portlaoise, Portiuncula - I could go on - not to mention the hospitals, such as Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, and all of the things that happened to women. How dare the Minister come in, twist the history and tell us a narrative that fits the boys' club? I will not accept it. I will not go over time either.

On a point of order, it is significant that we asked for this discussion. We begged for this discussion. We have the Government dominating the discussion today with the amount of time - I have no problem with that whatsoever - but they did not stand up with us when we asked repeatedly for time.

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