Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a crisis in maternity services across the country and the pace of development in maternity hospitals is very slow. There is movement on Holles Street hospital, little progress on the move of the Coombe Hospital to St. James's Hospital and little progress on the move of the Rotunda Hospital to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. We have had shocking reports from Professor Malone, of the Rotunda Hospital, concerning the intolerable patient safety crisis in the neonatal unit there. It is understood that eight babies have been affected. There is a high risk of infection because of the poor infrastructure. This has caused infections and one case of death, it is understood. It is very frightening for a new mother who may potentially be attending the Rotunda in need of the services of that neonatal unit. The Minister for Health, in particular, needs to take heed of the comments made by Professor Malone.

Professor Malone is seeking a short-term solution in the form of the construction of a new west wing at the hospital. That seems a reasonable request given that the move to Connolly Hospital is 15 years away. Professor Malone went on to give a stark warning to the Minister that the potential financial liabilities for the State associated with the clinical indemnity scheme payments for damages or dead babies may be very significant, potentially exceeding the cost of the interim development at the site. The Minister needs to take heed of this. We need to spend much more money on maternity services. Women need access to early scans and blood tests. Those services are not in place at the moment. I came across a lady who was 16 weeks pregnant recently and she had not yet had a scan. I thought that was quite shocking. It is clear that public maternity services are poor. We need a proper debate and we need to move this issue on very quickly. I have said this before. We would see maternity hospitals akin to the Aviva Stadium if men were having children. Go down to the Coombe instead and what is evident is a cattle mart. There are prefabs and poor and intolerable infrastructure for the treatment of women.

I would also like to raise the issue of Facebook's new virtual currency. It plans to launch a virtual coin called "Libra". It is a type of Bitcoin and will not be regulated in this State and it will not have the protections of the Central Bank. There is, however, a great appetite for this type of currency in Ireland. We need legislation on this issue and we should consider a debate in this House on such virtual currencies as Libra coin and Bitcoin. When one sees giant companies such as Facebook entering this market, one knows these currencies are going to gain traction and affect our daily lives. Many of us will be using such currencies and we need to get ahead of this curve.