Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is the first time I have ever heard the treatment of neonates or babies in this country being criticised or questioned. I have never once come across any parent or individual who criticised neonatal treatment in this country. To ask where would newborn babies be treated or kept and to suggest that they would not be treated is a terrible criticism of our health system and culture. Babies will be born in the next few hours in this country, and young couples who will have the beauty of a new child will possibly listen to this debate and wonder whether the hospital they are attending has the facilities to treat their newborn baby.

Last week, a baby was born in Letterkenny hospital whose mother was brought in by helicopter from Arranmore. I did not hear one person saying that Letterkenny hospital did not have the facilities to treat that baby which was born in unusual circumstances in the corridor of the hospital. It is insulting. My four children were born in Letterkenny hospital. Not once did anyone say that Letterkenny hospital might not be the best place for our babies to be born. The same is true of Sligo hospital or Beaumont or wherever. For anyone to suggest that about the HSE or the medical profession is outrageous. If that is the level of debate that we are having tonight on the protection of life it is a good case for the abolition of the Seanad. If we have come so low as to criticise the neonatal services in this country to ask how could they cope with the most extreme circumstances where a child is born-----