Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I wonder what Sláintecare will think of this philanthropy and the dependence on corporate private funding for our children's health. This is ideologically driven. The health of our nation, in particular that of our children who will be in the wonderful flagship building which is going up in my neighbourhood, should not be dependent on scrambling for the scraps offered by philanthropy or private funding, as other hospitals are to their detriment. They are told that funding depends on how they treat their patients and how many they treat. It is unsustainable and I thought we had moved into a new era of health provision for the public, with an idea that was not ideologically driven and where we did not have to fight for funding with other hospitals and other services.

This is a new start. We know how rotten and unequal our health service has become but this will progress that situation even further. Funding for the entirety of the new children's hospital must be a priority. We must be proud to stand over what is a public service funded by taxpayers' money. I do not believe one taxpayer would want to deny the new hospital its opportunity to be funded from taxpayers' resources.