Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is always welcome to the Seanad. I do not know where to begin with his statement because it is so large. Having more than €1 billion in funding available is phenomenal. The Minister also mentioned primary care centres, surgical hubs and the national children's hospital. It is all fantastic work and we are very happy with progress and the amount of money that has been rightly designated for these major infrastructural projects.

I hope the national children's hospital will be up and running in the very near future. Last Wednesday, Fianna Fáil tabled a motion on the naming of the national children's hospital and, on that day, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, confirmed that the naming decision rests with the Government. I want to use this opportunity to ask the Minister for Health to give good consideration to naming the national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. The motion received unanimous support and was agreed to. The motion has the support of parties throughout the country, trade unions and many other groups. The relatives of the 1916 Rising group also support the motion. I ask the Minister for Health to consider naming the hospital after Dr. Lynn in deliberations over the coming months.

Four projects in my constituency have been included, which made me very happy, and there is a total of €250,000 for this year. I know that some of the projects have received a substantial amount of funding. The construction of a 30-bed purpose-built psychiatry of later life facility on the main street in Lusk is very welcome. The national forensic mental health facility in Portrane, which the Minister visited with me a number of months ago, has received more funding. That facility is a major piece of health infrastructure in Ireland. Equally, St. Ita's in Portrane has been allocated another tranche of money. All of that funding builds on what the Minister has given the facility previously. A ten-bed high-support community residence will be developed in Swords to provide accommodation for the residents of Carlton House. That is development is welcome and I thank the Minister for putting that funding into the Dublin Fingal constituency.

I wish to discuss a report that has been produced by Marie O'Shea on the roll-out of abortion services in Ireland. I am sure the Minister and his officials have read her report in great detail. One of the recommendations might be something for future capital projects and reads:

The HSE should conduct a geospatial mapping exercise to measure the furthest distance a woman of reproductive age must travel to access a providing medical practitioner. In areas where there is low coverage and consequently women must travel longer distances to access care, the Department of Health and the HSE should consider supporting the establishment of local women’s health centres, providing comprehensive women’s healthcare services.

I think that is an excellent suggestion and I would like to hear the Minister's opinion on that. She continues:

These could be led by an obstetrician/gynaecologist or a GP with special interest in women’s health. Such a model would enable GPs who are interested in providing the service (but are unable to do so due to lack of peer support from practice colleagues) carry out sessions at a different location.

That is a really good and practical suggestion. When the Minister is considering future major capital projects, he might give good consideration to that. I say, "Well done", because that is a really good rundown of the money we are spending to improve the health infrastructure of this country.