Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is here. I invite her to correct the record on what is and what is not a Nightingale ward. I hope she has brought herself up to speed on that basic piece of information since our last debate.

The Minister knows what the concerns are. He has heard them. I will quote from a tweet. Maybe given the circumstances and the trouble on Twitter I should not mention it, but I will go there anyway. Gavan Reilly, referencing the Minister, said:

it ‘simply wouldn't be possible’ for circumstances to arise that a woman would be denied an elective termination... if it were to arise, [the Minister for Health] could ... exercise 'golden share'.

The thing that cannot happen might happen and, if it did, this is what would happen. The Minister will see why there might be some ambiguity and some concern in that sentence, which says, “This thing is not going to happen, but if it does happen, the thing that is not going to happen, then I will step in”.

For far too long, women in Ireland have had to go to the courts to access healthcare. They have had to petition their politicians. They have had to get down on their hands and knees and beg or get onto their feet on the streets and demand that healthcare. However, the Minister is saying now that is there is a form of healthcare that should be available to women. He says it will be available to women, but just in case it is not, he will do this other thing. Sentences like that do not help. When people say that they are concerned, the Minister cannot dismiss them by saying, I have this in hand, it is not going to happen, but if it does happen, I will do this other thing. I am sure that the Minister can understand why people are concerned.

Equally worrying is the fact that one in ten GPs are offering abortion care. Nine in ten maternity units are offering abortion care. This is under the Minister’s watch. He is telling us to trust him. He is saying to trust him, he will sort this out in the event that any woman is being denied an elective termination. However, he has not sorted out the situation in nine of the maternity units. There are issues of trust here. That is why we are here to debate this motion. That is why we need the assurance and the certainty that comes with ownership. A leasehold is not ownership. In fact, the leader of the Green Party in 2017 - this is in the motion - said that the new NMH “should not involve the creation of a lease arrangement but rather the transfer of ownership”. Nothing has changed since that time. He was dead right then and he is right now.

I hope that the Minister understands where the issues around trust have arisen. Some of the things that the Minister has said have not helped in that regard. In fact, they have been counterintuitive. That gives women pause to be very concerned.

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