Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit and I thank her for going off-script. It is important that Ministers stand up once and for all and assert themselves. I have received the same answer for the five years since Children’s Health Ireland was set up. This is its role and it involves State and the public money. The campaign to have the national children's hospital named after Dr. Kathleen Lynn is not a party political one - Dr. Maurice Manning and Dr. Martin Mansergh have supported it, as have many other historians - and it not being pursued only on the basis of history. Dr. Lynn's legacy is bigger than the role she played on major historical occasions.

As we approach the end of the decade of centenaries, this being the final year, it would be appropriate for the process to be concluded quickly and the hospital named, even if that means the Minister or somebody else issuing guidance to Children’s Health Ireland. In addition, as the Minister of State said, we have a fabulous building, which I too have visited. Hopefully, it will do exactly what has been promised and the hospital will learn from the teachings of Dr. Kathleen Lynn and other revolutionary doctors, such as Dr. Dorothy Stopford Price, Dr. Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, and all the other medical staff. The first hospital was run by women from start to finish and they set the bar very high for every other paediatric hospital. I firmly believe that on that basis alone, this is an opportunity for us to reflect what was happening in Teach Naomh Ultan at 37 Charlemont Street way back then when the hospital was set up. We seemed to lose our way for a while but at least now there is the potential to have this new hospital. It is opening next year but will, I hope, be handed over very early in the new year and patients will see the benefit of it. Perhaps they would also see the benefit if it was named after Kathleen Lynn.

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