Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Having listened to the Taoiseach earlier during Leaders' Questions, I put it to him that he is out of touch with the mood of the country on the issue of the national maternity hospital. He has had more than a week to make his case but polling still shows a majority against his plan. People want a State hospital on State land and 100% certainty that procedures opposed by the Catholic Church will be available there. They will be making their views very clear outside the gates of Leinster House at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The State should not be renting the land for our national maternity hospital from a company connected to an order of nuns and nor should that company have three directors on the board of the hospital. When the people voted for repeal, they voted to throw all of the old rubbish out of the house and into the dustbin of history. Why is the Government now trying to drag it back in?

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