Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for selecting this Commencement matter for debate. I have raised this issue again out of frustration. Last June, I raised the issue of the National Maternity Hospital, which has been located in Holles Street since the 19th century. It was established as a hospital in 1894. It is now the largest maternity hospital in Ireland and one of the largest in Europe, based on delivery rates. Almost 10,000 babies are born there every year.

There has been for the 20 years since 1996 a plan to co-locate the National Maternity Hospital on the same site as St. Vincent's Hospital in Elm Park, Dublin. In October 2013, I was heartened when it was announced that the hospital in Holles Street would be moved out to the St. Vincent's Hospital site. A brand new hospital was to built which would be suitable for the children of the future and for women to have their babies in a specially designed facility instead of one built in the 19th century. There has been no significant investment in Holles Street hospital since the mid-1950s.

In October 2013, it was announced that €150 million would be spent to build a new hospital, with €25 million to invest to ensure standards were kept up in Holles Street hospital. Planning permission was to be applied for in the last quarter of 2015. Lo and behold, however, a turf war broke out over who would control the budget. It was not necessarily about what is best for women or their children, but whether the current structure operating in the National Maternity Hospital would continue on as an independent hospital or whether St. Vincent's University Hospital would take over all control. That was never in any plan and it was never a problem until it was ready to go for planning permission. Nine months on - although I do not believe that period is significant - we still have had no decision.

The Minister appointed a mediator after I raised this matter last June. It is unacceptable that women and children are being put at risk over what are mainly men in grey suits on boards arguing over who will be in control of what budgets. I understand it is a voluntary hospital and when the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, was in the House in June, he said he did not have a plan B. That is not an excuse. The mediator has been working since June but we have heard no result. The Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, has presented a damning report on Holles Street hospital - not on the staff but on the conditions, including overcrowding.There are ten delivery wards for nearly 10,000 births when one should have at least 24 delivery wards. What is planned for the new hospital is 24 delivery wards for a demand of 10,000 births. Only down the road, Holles Street is struggling with ten delivery wards for 9,000 births. It is no longer acceptable that we should have a turf war between two hospitals that is affecting the health of and good outcomes for our children, and for women who go into that hospital to deliver babies.

I call on the Minister - it is the Minister of State who is here - to accept the need for a certain amount of urgency. There are games being played by the two hospital boards. I will not judge who is right and who is wrong. I only want a quality facility for women to go in and have their children, and for babies to have state-of-the-art facilities in that hospital which is not the case at present.