Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

recognising: - the contribution of Dr. Kathleen Lynn to the provision of healthcare to children and mothers, including her co-founding of Ireland's first children's hospital in 1919, St. Ultan's Hospital for Infants;

- the pioneering work of Dr. Kathleen Lynn in prioritising children’s health at a time when paediatrics was a fledging discipline;

- Dr. Kathleen Lynn’s tireless championing of social justice and public health;

- that the new National Children’s Hospital identity should be directly linked with the social justice values of this pioneering female medical doctor and champion of children’s, women’s and public health to guide and inform the values of future paediatric care in the new National Children's Hospital; noting: - the campaign to name the National Children's Hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn that is led by the 1916 Relatives Association;

- the broad support for this campaign from political and non-political parties and organisations, such as the Oireachtas Women’s Caucus, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, SIPTU, Fórsa, and the National Women's Council of Ireland; agreeing that: - the new National Children's Hospital will lead the provision of paediatric healthcare in Ireland for generations to come;

- the new National Children's Hospital will be a key enabler of strategic reform of the way that we deliver healthcare services for children and young people;

- the name of the new National Children's hospital should reflect the values that will inform the care it provides for generations to come; and calls for: - the new National Children's Hospital to be named after Dr. Kathleen Lynn.

I am sharing time with Senator Clifford-Lee.

The motion calls for the naming of the new national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. I thank the Minister of State for responding to the motion on behalf of the Government. I welcome the members of the 1916 Relatives Association to the Public Gallery. I thank them not just for their work on the campaign to name the new national children's hospital after Dr. Lynn, but also for their work consistently to honour and respect the memories of all the previous generations who fought for Irish independence, freedom, our right to self-determination and our Republic. I am sure their ancestors are very proud of the work they do. We really appreciate it and I thank them for being here today.Dr. Kathleen Lynn should not need any introduction. Her name should be one that is familiar to all of us but that is not the case. She was a very brave, courageous and ambitious individual, not just for herself but for our Republic. She was a pioneering medical doctor and one of the first females in Ireland to qualify as such. She was a proud and courageous republican and a champion of social justice. For all those things, she was a woman. She was not actually a Dub; she was from the west of Ireland. She was born in 1874 to Catherine and Robert Wynne, who was himself a Church of Ireland clergyman. She dedicated her life to others. In 1909, when she was just 25 years of age, she became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 1913, she was involved in the Lock-out and with Countess Markievicz helped those who needed it most. In 1916, she served as the chief medical officer for the Irish Citizen Army, ICA. After the Rising, she spent some time in prison but after that, she founded St. Ultan's Children's Hospital with Madeleine ffrench-Mullen in 1919.

The 1916 Relatives Association counts among its members people whose families were cared for in St. Ultan's Children's Hospital, which was a pioneering centre not just for children's healthcare but also for women's healthcare. At a time when we were a much poorer country and there were very different social and economic challenges, Kathleen Lynn and all those who worked in St. Ultan's Children's Hospital put the health and welfare of children, their mothers and families first. It was a unique and groundbreaking approach. For that, St. Ultan's Children's Hospital became referred to colloquially as "a university for mothers". It was not just a pioneer of children's healthcare and women's healthcare, but also of public health. We have all come through the pandemic and are familiar with the idea of inoculations and vaccines. They were the first to pioneer the bacille Calmette-Guérin, BCG, inoculation, which obviously transformed healthcare in our country and ended what had been an almost certain death sentence for anybody who had previously been diagnosed with tuberculosis, TB.

The new children's hospital has been in gestation for a very long time. It is reaching an ultimate point of readiness, however, and we all look forward to it. Temple Street Children's University Hospital is in my own constituency and there is also Crumlin hospital. We are all very eager for the hospital to be a success and wish everyone who works there well.

Everybody has a shared ambition that the hospital will be a place where the patient will be at the centre, and that this will be the primary impetus for all action and care that is provided there. It is for that reason I am really hoping the Government will get behind this campaign, which I acknowledge has broad support. I am very proud that my own Fianna Fáil Party has unanimously endorsed this campaign. It has been spearheaded by the 1916 Relatives Association. It has been backed by a number of political parties whose Members I am sure will speak today. It has also been backed by SIPTU, Fórsa and the National Women's Council of Ireland. I thank the Joint Committee on Health, whose members also endorsed the proposal, and the Oireachtas Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus. There is very broad support. This is a motion and a proposal I believe we can all own, support and champion.

I really believe the reason it is so compelling a proposition is because of Dr. Lynn and what she did with her life; her talents and her energy and how she applied them for the greater good in a way that brought the wealth of her experience and talents to those who needed it most. I do not think there can be a more fitting inspiration for those who will work in our new children's hospital. It will be state-of-the-art, modern and high-tech but at its core, it must also have as its guiding principle the care of the patient and the primacy of the patient's need, where everything is done for the patient's benefit.

I am sharing my time with Senator Clifford-Lee. I thank the Minister of State for being here. I thank everybody who engages in this debate. I really hope the Government will be able to give a positive response to this motion.