Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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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.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for this opportunity to update the House on this important matter. The children's hospital project will truly transform how paediatric care is delivered in Ireland. The new children's hospital building is at the heart of this transformation bringing the acute paediatric hospital service and specialties in Children's Health Ireland under one roof for the first time, leading to improved clinical outcomes and a better experience for children, young people and their families. This is a much-needed and much-deserved investment in our children and young people and for the dedicated staff working in children's health in Ireland who are currently providing excellent care. This much-needed reform will support the expert tertiary and higher level care treatment for all children and young people, who represent 25% of our population, in world-class state-of-the-art facilities where healthcare providers can deliver care leading to better health outcomes.

In satellite centres we already see the benefits of the investment in the new children's hospital project with the two new pediatric centres in Tallaght University Hospital and Connolly Hospital helping to reduce waiting times for children, young people and their families. In 2022 more than 22,000 children presented to the urgent care centre at Children's Health Ireland, CHI, at Connolly Hospital. More than 92% were discharged home after their visit. There have also been more than 15,000 outpatients attending CHI Connolly. In 2022, more than 36,000 children presented to the emergency care unit at CHI at Tallaght Hospital with more than 4,000 outpatients attending. Both of the satellite centres provide a new model of ambulatory care fully aligned with Sláintecare, ensuring the right care in the right place at the right time.

On the naming of the hospital, which is the matter the Senator put forward for debate today, following its establishment Children's Health Ireland was put on a statutory footing in 2009 and the opening of the satellite centres in Connolly and Tallaght, Children's Health Ireland's sites are currently referred to as CHI Crumlin, CHI Temple Street, CHI Tallaght and CHI Connolly. As the physical building progresses apace on the new children's hospital there is an emerging need for a permanent name to be assigned to the hospital, as the Senator identified. A clear name and entity are essential for identification purposes to enable the organisation to raise awareness of its services and view the name with a positive messaging association. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is aware of this need and of the importance of the name of the new children's hospital and as such the process for naming the children's hospital is currently under consideration.

I will conclude by noting that the new children's hospital is more than just bricks and mortar. It is a key enabler of strategic reform of the way we deliver health services for our children and young people. This hospital, and the wider pediatric network, will provide the right care in the right place and at the right time for the children and young people of Ireland. The process for naming the new children's hospital is currently under active consideration by the Minister.

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I should have thanked everybody who is still working on the construction of the hospital. That was remiss of me. It is tremendous to see it coming out of the ground and everybody who has worked on it is to be congratulated and commended. It will absolutely transform not only the provision of care for the patients, the young people who are 25% of our population, as the Minister of State referenced, but it will also transform the work environment for everybody who works in the hospital. I also commend and thank, and we can never do so enough, those who work in our health services, and not just in Crumlin and Temple Street, which is in my constituency of Dublin Central, but in Tallaght and Connolly, the Mater and the Rotunda. Our GPs and our community nurses are fantastic.

In terms of the naming of the hospital, I take encouragement from the Minister of State's reply because I think it acknowledged and recognised that there is a need for a proper identity for the hospital and a naming of the hospital that is appropriate and will not just represent the future of paediatric care but also the values that will inform it. Those values are captured perfectly in the name of Dr. Kathleen Lynn as are the values of social justice, equality and care for children and those who need it.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Once again I thank the Senator for her contribution on this matter. I can see how passionate she is in respect of putting forward the name of Dr. Kathleen Lynn as the name. This significant undertaking and the children's hospital project shows the commitment of the Government to develop paediatric services for children and young people, or dare I say to further develop them. The key enabler of the new children's hospital project will be the hub, a national network of paediatric services. This network will support regional local hospitals to deliver acute paediatric care close to home for children, finding more ambulatory care, and integrated locally with community provision. The two supporting satellite centres at Connolly and Tallaght, which represent major milestones as part of the wider reform effort, are completely and fully operational. This hospital, and the wider paediatric network, will substantially develop children and young people's healthcare within the wider Sláintecare vision, providing the right care in the right place at the right time for children and young people throughout Ireland for generations to come. As previously stated, and in terms of the key element of the Senator's Commencement matter this morning, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is mindful of the importance of the naming of the new children's hospital and as such the process for naming the new children's hospital is currently under active consideration.