Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will agree on that Senator Keogan. However, this State is a republic. As we enter into the next 100 years of this republic, when we start investing in our State care and hospitals, we should own everything to do with our hospitals. I feel really deeply worried and concerned about how this conversation has gone in the last five minutes but I am not going to rehash the arguments that have been made because we see that a new hospital is needed and that co-location is needed. We need to move on. I trust those doctors when they say that they will be able to do all procedures. I trust the State but I do not trust an organisation that has been set up by a Catholic institution. My trust in the Catholic institutions has gone. I discussed this endlessly and we are constantly dealing with legacy in this country, whether that be the North, the mother and baby homes or institutional abuse.

I believe to my core that this State should own every single morsel of the new hospital. In 149 or 150 years, we should not be kicking the can down the road and having the Fianna Fáil Government of 150 years time dealing with the renegotiation of another lease and the questions about whether it is Catholic-run or waiting for the Pope to write another letter. It is not acceptable and we must start a new century as a new Irish Republic looking forward and owning our mistakes that have allowed 100 years of religious interference in our medical care. There is a lot of work to do and I hope we have a proper resolution to this issue. I will stand by the Government but my core belief is that we should own what we are paying for.