Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----but there is only so much nonsense that can be accommodated here in respect of the ownership question. The ownership is not an issue here. If Deputy McDonald does not listen to me, that is fine, but listen to the senior midwives at the hospital, who have asked all politicians, Government and Opposition, to listen to the clinicians in the hospital. I have the letter here from the senior midwives of the National Maternity Hospital, who are very clear that future service users require and deserve state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities, and who state: “We urge all political parties in Government and Opposition to listen to the clinical staff delivering the service and to approve this project without further delay”. It was signed by Mary Brosnan, the director of midwifery and nursing, and quite a number more, including other assistant directors of midwifery and nursing. These are people who were there at the coalface every day, dealing with the clinical realities and the unacceptable situation at Holles Street right now.

In this morning’s Irish Examiner, for example, there was a column written by Fergus Finlay, a member of the HSE board who gave some illustration of the detailed consideration given by the HSE board and its audit and risk committee in respect of this hospital, and all of the documentation and the guarantees. He is a person, irrespective of politics, who would not sign off on any deal that would compromise healthcare for women or that would allow any religious ethos to have any influence whatsoever on a maternity hospital.

I ask Deputy McDonald to accept that. I mean, it is 300 years at a tenner a year. The Deputy mentioned the condition. The condition is that they have to build a maternity hospital, essentially. That is what we are all about - building a maternity hospital. What other business has the HSE if it is not going to build a maternity hospital here or facilitate the construction of a maternity hospital with neonatal? Let us be honest - it is €10 per year for 300 years. That is the deal. It is leasehold. It is not going to be a cardiology hospital. It is not going to be any other type of hospital. It is going to be a maternity hospital.

I am pleading for people to at least read the documentation, not try to distort it. I am not saying Deputy MacDonald has distorted the documentation but quite a lot of people have. What Deputy McDonald comes up with now is "convoluted this" and "convoluted that"-----

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