Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today. This morning I seek an update from the Minister for Health on the proposal to name the new national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. The campaign to name the national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn has been led by the 1916 Relatives Association and has the support of my own party, Fianna Fáil, as well as of SIPTU and Fórsa. It also has the support of Dr. Kathleen Lynn's alma mater, Alexandra College, and other political parties, non-political parties and organisations like the National Women's Council of Ireland. There is broad support for the campaign and the proposal to name the national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. For those who are not aware, Dr. Kathleen Lynn was both a medical doctor and a revolutionary. Maybe we would call her a disrupter in modern parlance. She was a pioneer of children's and women's health, and a champion of social justice. She was born in Mayo, she was not a Dubliner, in 1874. She studied medicine and was a suffragist. She was involved in both the 1913 Lock-out and the 1916 Rising. She was arrested and imprisoned. She did time in Kilmainham and Mountjoy prisons. Following all of that, which one would think was enough excitement in one woman's life, in 1919 she founded St. Ultan's Hospital, the first children's hospital. That was but a stone's throw from here on Charlemont Street. In that hospital she pioneered the provision of healthcare for children and women, many of whom would never have had access to healthcare. Certainly they would not have had access to professional healthcare. She has a legacy today that we all enjoy. She started and fostered a tradition of caring for children and those health needs that are particular to children and their mothers. She cared for women's health needs. Women's healthcare has come a long way but still has so much further to go. She was a woman who provided healthcare to people of a socioeconomic background who would never have been able to access it. She not only championed it as a value. She lived it and made it real. Her legacy is undisputable. Her contribution to our Republic we still enjoy. We rightly celebrate the fathers of our Republic but there is very little celebration of the mothers of our Republic. Very few women of Irish history are properly and appropriately commemorated. I believe, together with many others, that the creation of a national children's hospital providing best in class, up to date, best quality healthcare for our children is absolutely what our State should be doing.That care and provision should be informed by the values of Dr. Kathleen Lynn. The values of provision of healthcare based on one's health needs and the provision of healthcare based on social justice. What I would like today is an update from the Department of Health and the Minister for Health on what the process is and where the Department is in the process of naming the national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn.