Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am drawing a line between what I regard as the Minister's position on one issue and the cynical dressing up of Government choices as being about protecting the best interests of children in this case, when many experts, people at the coalface of children's medicine, are tearing their hair out at the choice this Government has made. The most cynical thing of all, and I have heard the Government and its supporters go on about it, is the claim that the co-location of the children's hospital with an adult teaching hospital somehow meets the needs involved when the experts are saying quite clearly that where co-location is desirable is the co-location of a maternity hospital with a children's hospital or perhaps a maternity hospital with an adult hospital. The third matter, and well down the list, is the argument about the co-location of a children's hospital with an adult hospital. The Government and the Minister for Health have spun mercilessly on that particular point which is an indictment of the Minister's stewardship. I am not a medical person, no more than the Minister is not one, but I quote Professor Chris Fitzpatrick who said "with neither money nor space, plans for a tri-located maternity hospital are now a pie-in-the-sky fantasy." That would be all right if it was not so important. However, according to the 2012 O'Reilly expert group, if we wish to improve the clinical outcome for sick children, the most critical adjacency for the national children's hospital is with a tertiary maternity hospital where high-risk babies can be delivered. The Minister has heard this many times because he heard from the Connolly for Kids people. They briefed every single member of the Government extensively on the crucial importance of the issues that were at play here yet the Government went its own way. It did so, I think, because of political cowardice because it was not, in the end, primarily motivated by welfare of children. It was motivated by the idea that we could not countenance backing out of the wrong choice yet again, no doubt because of the attitude that would have been taken by other political groups. Frankly, the Minister's job is to govern in the best interest of the children and families concerned. Even now, the Minster is showing a failure to unthink the unthinkable. The Government's argument that it could not delay any longer for the sake of the children of Ireland holds no water when medical experts, people who care and who know about caring for children, say even now it should be revisited. Yes, there would be-----