Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State for taking this issue tonight.

A couple of week ago, I visited the neonatal unit of the Rotunda Hospital, which is just off Parnell Street in my own constituency of Dublin 1. While there, I met the clinicians there who are being asked to work in conditions that are incredibly unsuited to the importance of the work and to the vulnerability of the babies who they care for while there. The impression you could not help but leave with is that although there are amazing clinicians in the Rotunda, who offer the very best of care where possible, the systems, the building and the rooms they are asked to work in and perform their duties, are simply not suitable for purpose in a modern republic in 2025. Indeed, it was not suitable when my own younger brothers were in that neonatal unit in 1994. The Rotunda has put forward a proposal that is not about luxury or even about expansion for its own sake but is about basic standards of care. The plan it put forward includes 19 new post-natal beds, a state-of-the-art new neonatal intensive care unit with 46 separate spaces for babies, a new labour ward with appropriate numbers of bathrooms and a midwifery-led unit on the ground floor. That stands in stark contrast with the current facilities I witnessed where 37 babies, some who were critically ill, were sharing one small space. Clinicians were stretched to the limits and infection control standards simply do not match the level of care the babies, their families and the clinicians who work there deserve. The Rotunda is the busiest maternity hospital in northern Europe. Thousands of babies from the most vulnerable populations are born there each year and 40% of all the babies in Dublin are born in the Rotunda Hospital, yet the infrastructure is dangerously outdated. There already have been multiple infection outbreaks in the unit in recent months directly linked to overcrowding and inadequate space.

I am aware there are objections raised in the planning process to the expansion. However, I want to say with all urgency that I see no building in this city as more important that the little protected structures that I witnessed in those incubators that day, as well as their survival and dignity. It is the most critical infrastructure. I understand that, strictly speaking, this matter lies with the planning system. I am not immune to that fact or reality. However, we stand here in the national Parliament where there is a picture of the Rotunda Hospital on the wall behind me. If this Parliament cannot take a stand and make not only requests but demands and an urgency known to those who stand in the way of such critical infrastructure, we certainly have to find a way. I am sure the Minister of State will agree that what the expansion of the hospital needs cannot be achieved through a delayed, dragged out, planning process that may take a decade. It requires urgency and may require intervention. I am somebody who believes in the architectural heritage of this city. I am somebody who loves the fact that walking through Dublin you can feel its history. I live just around the corner from the Rotunda Hospital, off Mountjoy Street, so I understand the importance of the history of the area. However, there is no history more important than the future of the babies who I witnessed in those incubators. I appreciate the Minister of State may be tied in her response but I also appreciate that working collectively together, we may find a way.

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