Mark Wall (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. I welcome to the Visitors Gallery members of the 1916 Relatives Association, who are guests of Senator Fitzpatrick.

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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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.

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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I am very proud to second this motion. Before I start, I acknowledge the work my colleague Senator Fitzpatrick has put into this but also Senator Ardagh, who cannot be here tonight, unfortunately, to second this motion. I am standing in her place. She has done an awful lot of work. She is a passionate supporter of Dr. Kathleen Lynn and like her is a former student of Alexandra College. I know the college is very proud of Dr. Lynn's legacy and is in full support of our motion tonight. That is really important to note.

My colleague Senator Fitzpatrick gave a really good outline of why Dr. Lynn is such an important person. She was correct in saying that her name does not roll off the tongue like Plunkett, Pearse or Markievicz, and it should because she played such an important role. She was the chief medical officer in the Rising, which was a really important role. She was imprisoned like everybody else. Her role was vital. She trained Cumann na mBan and the ICA in medical techniques prior to the Rising. That training she gave was really fundamental to the success after the Rising and beyond. We would not have gotten through it without the expertise of Dr. Kathleen Lynn, who rejected a life of privilege to dedicate her life to the poor people of Dublin. We cannot underestimate the impact of that.

She founded St. Ultan's Children's Hospital, which was the only female-led and female-managed hospital in the country. She was a pioneer and champion for the Irish language. She ran many events within St. Ultan's Children's Hospital through Irish and she was an advocate for the use of the Irish language within the Church of Ireland, which was really groundbreaking at the time. She really did a huge amount in that space too. She was elected as a Teachta Dála at a time when there were not many female Teachtaí Dála; there still are not. We need to acknowledge not only her medical achievements and what she did during the Lock-out and the Rising and beyond, but also what she did by getting elected. She was one of those very brave women who stood up and stood for Parliament and tried to crack that glass ceiling. We are continuing that work.

It would be very fitting to call the new children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. We do not have many things called after women in this country. When we think of any of our big institutions, it is men who dominate that sphere. We led a very successful campaign within Parliament to have more women hanging on our walls. Under the stewardship of Senator Mark Daly, we have far more portraits of women. To have a visibility of women in public life and office in our institutions and buildings sends a really powerful message. Quite frankly, if we do not name this hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn, we will send a very negative message to the women of Ireland. She is such a huge figure and influence on the outcome of this country in political terms but also in public health terms. The vaccine programme she and others introduced was a major benefit for the people of Dublin. The education they led for women who were not catered for, quite frankly, within the health system was really revolutionary. The care she gave to the young babies and children of Dublin is really important. I really would like some cross-party support. I would like the Minister of State to indicate that the Government will accept this. As my colleague Senator Fitzpatrick outlined, it has the backing of unions and various organisations. It has the backing of our party and I am hopeful it will have the backing of every other party here. I hope the Government will continue with the goodwill and show the women of Ireland that it is not all talk.We will put a very important figure on our new national children's hospital. That is the high regard in which we hold Dr. Kathleen Lynn but also the women who laid the foundations yet were ignored in the history books for so long and played a vital role in our independence, public health system and in the modernisation of our country.

I look forward to the rest of the debate and I hope all Senators will support our motion.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome our guests who are seated in the Gallery I thank Senator Fitzpatrick for tabling this motion. I remind the House that in December 2022 the Seanad Independent Group, in a similar motion, called for the national children's hospital to be named after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. The motion was proposed by my colleague, Senator Keogan, seconded and passed. It is great that we are revisiting the issue and people have moved on. Interestingly, the preliminary response to our motion in December 2022 was that it was too premature but now we are halfway through 2023 and some things have changed. I acknowledge the support and work of the groups involved, particularly Senator Fitzpatrick who has a better link with the Government than I as she is a member of a Government party. There has a broad shift in support and why would there not be for this remarkable woman?

As we know, Kathleen Lynn was born on 28 January in 1874 near Killala, County Mayo and was the daughter of a Church of Ireland clergyman. Like many members of the Church of Ireland, they had great allegiance to nationalism and republicanism, which is a narrative that is not quite told in our history. Such people had a great support for an independent Ireland that was free to do its own thing and have its own governance. As an active member of the Church of Ireland, I am very proud of that long history in terms of language and culture, as is the current Church of Ireland. Last Sunday, President Michael D. Higgins somewhat touched on that history during his speech at the national famine commemoration in Milford, County Donegal. I believe that narrative is not spoken enough and naming the hospital after Dr. Lynn fits into all of that.

Earlier today, when we talked about the mother and baby institutions payments scheme, I kept thinking that if Dr. Kathleen Lynn was here then she would be a robust, strong advocate-----

Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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-----for decent equality and justice for children who were brought up in care. Dr. Lynn dealt with many of them in her later work.

Growing up in the aftermath of the famine, Kathleen was deeply saddened by the deadly diseases and poverty suffered by the people. She also heard many stories about this from her family before her. She achieved her ambition and graduated as one of the first female doctors in Ireland, which brought its own challenges but they did not deter her for she was determined regardless of gender to achieve her ambition of being a doctor. She had an extremely successful private practice in Rathmines, Dublin. People would have known of her then and many people chose to change doctor and attend her practice.

Kathleen became radicalised and mobilised through the stories and the care that she provided to her parents. She later became part of the emerging revolution who wanted Irish freedom, independence, and for Irish people to have control over their own destiny and governance. Was she not brave, courageous, noble and right?

Kathleen worked in the soup kitchens during the 1913 Lockout. She later became the chief medical officer for James Connolly's Irish Citizen's Army. Of course, we know that during the 1916 Rising, Dr. Lynn treated many of the wounded and casualties. Dr. Margaret MacCurtain, the well known historian who died in October 2020, wrote very extensively about Dr. Kathleen Lynn, and it is interesting to read and look over her works and papers on Dr. Lynn.

Kathleen remained active in the nationalist movement and was elected vice-president of the Sinn Féin executive in 1917. Kathleen was elected as a Deputy for Dublin in 1923, although she did not take up her seat in Dáil Éireann.

In 1919, Kathleen finally opened St. Ultan's Children's Hospital, which she called "her little hospital", on Charlemont Street near Ranelagh. The hospital provided much-needed medical and educational support for enfants and their mothers, which is an important aspect as it touches on the mother and baby institutions and that legacy.

The last great endeavour by Kathleen was to raise funds for the national children's hospital but the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Charles McQuaid, thwarted her plans.

I want to talk about St. Ultan's and it would be remiss of me if I did not mention Kathleen's great colleague and love, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. Life is strange as I ended up living in a house called Racefield House in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, and the house was owned by the ffrench-Mullen family. In very recent times I visited the Avoca handweavers in Laragh, County Wicklow where I met members of the ffrench-Mullen family, and I knew the significance of that unusual family name and we shared our stories. Madeleine ffrench-Mullen was a very significant woman in her own right and very much to the fore and partnered with Dr. Lynn, which it is important to recognise.

As we know, Dr. Lynn died without seeing her dream of a national children's hospital materialise. It is, therefore, a fitting legacy that we name the hospital after her. The motion tabled is very worthy of support and I will definitely support it. I wish to acknowledge the engagement that I have had with the Independent councillors, Mannix Flynn, Christy Burke and Nial Ring, and others from all parties in Dublin City Council because I know that they very much support this initiative. I thank Fianna Fáil. Finally, I thank Senator Fitzpatrick for keeping the burner turned up under this issue and I believe that the Government will not oppose the motion.

Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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I commend the motion and pay tribute to the work of Senator Fitzpatrick. I have received a couple of texts that congratulated me on my work and I had to correct the senders and say that it was Senator Fitzpatrick who did an awful lot of work on this issue. I also welcome the group of relatives who are present today.

Without doubt, Dr. Kathleen Lynn was an extraordinary woman and exceptional servant of Ireland. The poverty she encountered and observed was a defining moment in her life. It led to her lifelong dedication to improve things and her decision to become a doctor. She spent the rest of her life serving the poor and the people of Ireland.

Kathleen came from Killala, County Mayo, which is an area that I have a particular affinity for as does my mother. Of course I would have to support this motion even just for that reason. Dr. Lynn made the pioneering decision to establish a children's hospital, and all of those reasons have been mentioned, which carried out interventions that were before their time.

Kathleen was active in the Rising albeit she was anti-treaty, on which I have a view. She also ran the gauntlet of her own family's rejection for a number of things that she chose to do in her life, and most particularly her involvement in the Rising.

Kathleen had a lifelong relationship with Madeleine ffrench-Mullenand, in so doing, she broke the mould. There is no doubt that Kathleen was a woman who broke many moulds. She was extraordinary, ahead of her time and a fearless leader in her time. She also broke many gender moulds in all that she did. Therefore, it is right that we remember and commemorate her birth, death and, most particularly, her life. The national children's hospital will have an acute paediatric care primary centre for paediatric education, training and research in Ireland. The hospital will be world-class and a world leader. As a child-centred facility, the hospital will be innovative and provide the highest standard of excellence in paediatric healthcare. Certainly on the surface of it, naming the hospital after Dr. Lynn would appear to be a perfect fit. From that perspective, my head and heart both compel me to support the motion.

I have a slight concern about the means by which we name things. I would like to know how we arrive at these decisions and the process involved.We need to be careful of a process of advocacy that has a political motivation. We need to be sure we are not setting precedence for future namings that we would not adhere to and with which we would not agree. That said, it is important that we single out and red circle women for commemoration in our naming. The naming of the Rosie Hackett Bridge was a groundbreaking moment and the naming of this hospital should be too. I conducted a poll of people in Dublin South-Central and asked what they think. I told them about Dr. Lynn and her whole life. I told them how fantastic she was and asked how they would feel about the hospital being named after her. The reaction was mixed. Some people asked why it cannot just be named functionally as the national children's hospital of Ireland. They asked why not include a statue of Dr. Lynn in the hospital. They asked if we could call it St. Ultan's in her memory rather than attaching the hospital name to an individual. Those are the other voices in this debate and other thoughts that are worth considering. The hospital is owned by the people of Ireland, a point that was very well made in the email from the relatives urging my support. It is owned by the people of Ireland so perhaps its name needs to be as neutral as that. I do, in principle, support the naming of the hospital after Dr. Lynn. However, I urge us to have a set mechanism for the naming of buildings. I have concerns about future buildings and what they might be called. Heretofore, we have, in the main, been able to agree but that may not be the case in the future.

Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit and the guests in the Gallery. I welcome this motion. It has been long-standing Sinn Féin policy to name the children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. When a motion came before Dublin City Council, it was indicative that only Fine Gael opposed it. The motion passed by 11 votes to four.

As was said in the emails we received, the children's hospital is a public infrastructure project that will ultimately be owned by the people, the citizens of Ireland. That is why there could be no more fitting a name than that of Dr. Kathleen Lynn. Dr. Lynn was a phenomenal woman. She was a pioneer for many reasons, as others have outlined. She has been a hero of mine for years. In fact, I wear a brooch with a picture of her to keep her close to my heart, and I will explain why. It is not just because of the role she played in 1916, when she served as the chief medical officer for the Irish Citizen Army stationed in City Hall or because of her language and social justice activism or her role within the Lockout. Of course, it is because of her role in, and work for, public healthcare. Others have said that she was so affected by the poverty she saw around her as she was growing up that she decided to go into medicine and dedicated her life to improving the health outcomes of women and children in this country, first running a private medical practice from her own home and then after the Rising, setting about establishing St. Ultan's Children's Hospital. It was exceptional in being a female-led hospital. That is fundamental to what an important figure Dr. Lynn was.

St. Ultan's offered essential healthcare to infants and their mothers. My father was one of those infants. My dad was the son of a single mother in the 1940s. As Senator Boyhan said, we cannot but reflect on the previous debate, which was about redress for those who were in the mother and baby homes and how we treat those women. My father, by sheer luck, managed to stay with his mother. He attended St. Ultan's for his BCG vaccine. He went there for regular health check-ups when he was a young child growing up in the flats in Kevin Street. His mother was also able to attend and was given advice about her own health as well as that of her child. There is no doubt but that the advice given to women in St. Ultan's included advice on reproduction because it was a female-led hospital. There would have been advice on all of those things that are so important to women's health. It is no doubt the reason St. Ultan's came to the attention of John Charles McQuaid.

Dr. Lynn, like many of the women revolutionaries in this country, was never given the recognition she deserved. Such women were effectively airbrushed out of history. We now have the portrait of Elizabeth Farrell that puts her back to the front and centre of that occasion during the 1916 Rising. Walking through Dublin city, one could try to find statues of iconic women but would struggle to do so. There are the Anna Livia and Molly Malone statues but we do not have statues dedicated to the women who played a role in the foundation of this State. The renaming of the Rosie Hackett Bridge

was a momentous occasion. As has been said, we are only beginning to acknowledge the women politicians who have come through this House. There are not enough of them but at least we are finally starting to put their faces up on the walls and acknowledge they existed and we exist. Women have played an important role in the history of our State.

It is interesting that we are discussing this issue today. Across societies, people are examining who theirs streets and buildings are named after and what statues are in their squares. The statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was torn down in Bristol. The Trinity College Students' Union has voted to rename the Berkeley Library. It is an interesting point in time. As societies, we are having those conversations about who we value, who we give recognition to and what it represents to society when we name buildings after people and erect statues to them. It is wonderful to see Roger Casement standing proud on Dún Laoghaire pier. He was a phenomenal character and did so much around the rubber plantations. Who a society chooses to recognise says a lot. That is why naming the hospital after Dr. Lynn would be a powerful statement.

We as a country and society have moved on. Dr. Lynn was a feminist, republican and social justice activist. She was a champion of women's health. Let us imagine the message that sends out to the workers, including the cleaners, doctors and nurses, who will go into the hospital every day, and to the parents of the patients. For the people who oppose the hospital being named after Dr. Lynn, their opposition says more about them than it does about those of us who want to value her legacy and recognise her formally by naming the hospital after her.

Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein)
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Well said.

Frances Black (Independent)
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I am delighted to speak in favour of the motion. It is a brilliant idea and I have been excited about it ever since I first heard of the campaign when Senator Fitzpatrick invited the 1916 relatives association to Leinster House to promote the proposed naming of the hospital. I welcome the representatives of the 1916 relatives association to the Seanad.

Dedication is an important part of commemoration and by naming places and pieces of infrastructure after prominent people from our past, we can communicate something about who we are and where we have been. The names of many Irish streets and stations portray our complicated post-colonial status. Streets named after aristocrats are intersected by ones named after the revolutionaries who sought to dispose of them. Charlemont Street is an example. It captures something about the essence of the place.

The motion rightly identifies Dr. Lynn as a central early figure in Irish paediatrics. St. Ultan's, the children's hospital she founded with her partner, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, and other women activists was at the cutting edge of infant healthcare in Ireland. It truly was a lifeline to the women and children of Dublin's tenements. Dr. Lynn and her colleagues had an unshakeable commitment to the poor and to public health. I grew up on Charlemont Street in one of those tenements. I attended St. Ultan's hospital, as did the rest of my family, and, therefore, I feel a personal connection to the life and legacy of Dr. Lynn. I have a real sense of gratitude and admiration for the care she provided to my community.

Dr. Lynn was a key figure in the roll-out of the BCG vaccine that eradicated tuberculosis in Ireland, as others have said. Her influence transformed healthcare in this country, yet it is sad to say she is not a household name when she should be.Naming the new children's hospital after her would help to rectify this injustice. I want to take a little time to speak about her because I think she deserves that.

Dr. Kathleen Lynn was the product of a uniquely radical cross-pollination that swept Ireland in the early 20th century. Irish people, women and workers were getting organised to challenge the oppression they faced. Some particularly perceptive activists like Dr. Lynn saw the connections between these different forms of repression. They forged powerful links between the socialist, feminist and republican movements of the day. This was an innovative and expansive conception of freedom that went far beyond most modest demands for Home Rule or universal suffrage. Radicals like Dr. Lynn wanted to democratise every area of life.

Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen were both combatants in the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising. After the defeat they were incarcerated together in Kilmainham Jail. Dr. Lynn was banished to Britain by the colonial authorities but soon returned to Ireland and climbed the ranks of Sinn Féin, eventually serving a term as an abstentionist TD. Her refusal to accept partitioned political institutions meant, unfortunately, that she was politically marginalised at the end of her life. She died in 1955 in what was a conservative, patriarchal Ireland that looked nothing like the feminist republic she and her comrades had fought for. In Dr. Lynn's life there is a tragic counterfactual. What would Ireland have looked like if women like her were at the centre of the new State, instead of at its margins? When we consider the mother and baby homes it is hard to imagine Dr. Lynn's republic inflicting the same kind of repression and harm on women and children that the theocratic Irish State did and it is hard to imagine her presiding over such great inequality. We will never know but our speculation can inform our political aspirations for contemporary Ireland.

Ireland has been blessed with many admirable, heroic and historically significant people that we can name things after. However, for us there have not been enough women. There have been many important republican women, and they all deserve to be commemorated. For example, Winifred Carney, Helena Molony, Elizabeth O'Farrell and Julia Grennan, to name just a few. The naming of the Rosie Hackett Bridge over the River Liffey in 2014 was an inspired choice. The bridge is located right by Liberty Hall, where Hackett printed the original copies of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and where she provided over 50 years of service to the Irish trade union movement. I know there is a campaign to name the new pedestrian bridge in Galway city after Julia Morrissey, the Cumann na mBan leader and 1916 veteran. That would be fantastic. I think it is a great idea. Along with the proposal to name the new children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn, it would help to address the lack of commemoration of republican women.

I commend the 1916 Relatives Association and Senators Fitzpatrick and Ardagh on all their work on the campaign. I also thank the Fianna Fáil group for using their Private Members' time to introduce this motion. It is wonderful and I am deeply grateful. I am so glad it has attracted such broad political support. I hope it is enough to secure the naming of the new children's hospital. Dr. Kathleen Lynn's contribution to Irish society deserves to be remembered and naming the new hospital after her would be a great way to ensure that happens.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I, too, thank the Fianna Fáil group and Senators Fitzpatrick, Ardagh and Clifford-Lee for bringing forward this motion. I also thank the 1916 Relatives Association for all its work in campaigning to ensure this fantastic new children's hospital will have the name it deserves. It will ensure we are looking to the past but also establishing our commitment to the future and what the new children's hospital should embody. For some years now, the Labour Party and the trade union movement have been supportive of naming the new children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn.

I was smiling when Senator Boyhan spoke about the motion last November because at that stage not every party in the House was on board. However, it is fantastic now if that is the case. There should be a speedy move now to try to ensure the hospital is named after Dr. Lynn. One of the striking things about this discussion and debate is that while women played a very important role in the decade before and the decade after the foundation of our State, they have been erased from history. I am thinking of the likes of Delia Larkin, Helena Molony and many others who have been erased from history with their roles glossed over to make way for the primacy of the men who were involved. It is important that the project of ensuring the role of women at the time is recognised and reflected in our public infrastructure. God knows, there is enough State money going into this public infrastructure so it is important to ensure a better balance.

With Dr. Kathleen Lynn it is not just about remembering our history but also looking to how her legacy can inform, shape and drive what the new children's hospital and healthcare for children in the State should look like. It should not be about tokenism which, to be fair, the naming of any building is about. Rather, it is about embodying Dr. Lynn's ideals and her fight for a fairer country, one that should be committed to universal access and should look after the most vulnerable in society. We should seek to embody those ideals in the new hospital in terms of gender equality. We have come far but we still have far to go.

Dr. Kathleen Lynn studied medicine in UCD and graduated in 1899 but she was refused a position in the Adelaide Hospital because of her gender. When she eventually did get a paid position she did enormous work in linking poverty and disease. She saw that the afflictions of the poorest were not just something to be accepted or that the poor should be reliant on charity, but that things could actually be changed. I think of the enormous work she did with the establishment of St. Ultan's Children's Hospital but also the introduction of the BCG vaccination project and resisting State and church control of the activities of the hospital. The establishment of St. Ultan's Children's Hospital was groundbreaking in establishing access for all children in the Dublin area. Today, my colleagues in Dáil tabled a motion on the appalling lack of services for those who have autism in this country and how far behind we are in ensuring that children are cared for in a timely and adequate fashion. There are lessons to be learned from Dr. Lynn's example.

The other key legacy that needs to be recalled with regards to the naming of this hospital is that Dr. Kathleen Lynn lived an unconventional life in those times, with her partnership with Madeline ffrench-Mullen. Ireland in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s was very hostile and cold to any gay person. Senator Black spoke very eloquently about how different the State was when Dr. Lynn was in her elder years compared with the State she fought for in 1916.

Naming the children's hospital should not be an end in itself. Naming it in memory of Dr. Kathleen Lynn should entail a commitment to ensuring that her ideals of equality, democracy, fairness and justice are embodied in how healthcare is delivered in this country, not only in the children's hospital but everywhere in the health sector. I support the motion.I welcome the motion. I spoke on it before but not in support, for a number of reasons. I am familiar with many hospitals: University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park in my area; Castlebar and University Hospital Limerick. None of them is named after men. If we had a history of naming all hospitals after men one could say we should change tack and name a hospital after a woman. However, that is not what this is about.

Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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What about the train stations?

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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Dr. Kathleen Lynn was a formidable woman, from what I read about her. She should be honoured for her republicanism. Somebody said here she is not a household name. I put the blame for that on those who belong to her party. I certainly will not take any blame for it. I was lucky enough to be part of a Government and party who built the children’s hospital with taxpayers' money. We got dog’s abuse for everything and at every step. It was said the siting of it should be on the Mater site or Blanchardstown. The Independents wanted it down the country and not in Dublin. It is interesting that after all of that and the commitment to build it, it is now a fine facility, absolutely world class, and we are proud of it. Sinn Féin is looking forward to opening the hospital if given the chance and Fianna Fáil wants to name it. I find it strange. That is a purely political point but I will make it.

The most important words in the naming of the children's hospital are “Children”, “Hospital” and “Ireland”. Whether it is named after Dr. Kathleen Lynn, General Michael Collins or whoever is a different matter. The most important thing is it is named based on what it is, which is a children's hospital in Ireland. When hiring the best paediatricians and consultants around the world, one wants to know they know exactly where they are coming to. I do not think we have a history of naming places after people and it can become controversial. We had a majority in these Houses some time ago. Maybe Sinn Féin will have it after the next election, who knows? Consider if we came in and said we wanted to name a new road after General Michael Collins or something else after somebody associated with our party. I have particular issues with it. I am reminded of the situation in the United States when Herbert Hoover was building the dam known initially as the Hoover Dam. There was a change in party representation and it became known as the Boulder Dam, then reverted back to the Hoover Dam. The most important thing is that a world-class children's hospital be built providing the best healthcare, that its name will have “Children’s”, “Hospital” and “Ireland” and that it will be of international renown and repute.

I do not feel we should go down the road of reopening history books in relation to naming public buildings. Dr. Lynn is a tremendous woman who did a tremendous amount. She should be honoured and should have been honoured before this. I said I would leave that to other individuals but I feel this is the wrong route to go down. I was part of the Government that took the tough decisions. Other parties talked about building a children's hospital for decades; we put the shoulder to the wheel. Dr. James Reilly was involved, and got dog’s abuse, as was Deputy Harris.

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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A pat on the back for them.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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Sorry, Senator, you are long enough here to know the rules.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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Issues arose about the cost. Looking at inflationary pressures since then, if we decided to start building it now it would be multiples.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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Senator, you had your chance to speak.

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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The brass neck of it, though.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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We are all rushing to open it. I appreciate that. It would be multiples of the cost now. It is right Dr. Lynn be honoured in some fashion but I am not sure naming the children's hospital is the most appropriate way.

I note there is nobody here from the Department of Health, which is unusual. Who ultimately will decide on this? The motion has been passed already. Senator Keogan put it down. It was already passed by the House, albeit without debate. Who ultimately decides? Is it the Cabinet, the Minister or the Houses?

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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We passed it.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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There was no debate.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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It was passed without debate.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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It was. Is it the board of the children's hospital? Maybe the Minister does not know. Is it a recommendation that goes to Cabinet? I am not sure.

Before someone says there are precedents, there was the Jack Lynch Tunnel, when Fianna Fáil were in power and at their height. It has happened for previous taoisigh. I do not know of any taoisigh for a number of years who had a hospital or anything else named after him. I am worried about the precedent this sets. After whom will projects be named? I know it goes on in Northern Ireland. They seem to revel in naming projects after patriots. It is right and proper that Dr. Lynn be honoured and remembered but I am not sure this is appropriate.

Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the special guests. It is hard to follow Senator Kyne’s contribution. We are all entitled to our own views on this and mine is significantly different from his. That is what politics and debating is about and I respect that.

I acknowledge the role my colleagues, Senators Ardagh and Fitzpatrick, had in bringing forward this motion. I want to go back to the role of women in Ireland. I do not think we are trying to rewrite history by calling the hospital after Dr. Lynn. We are acknowledging the role women played in the modern Irish Republic and how they helped evolve it.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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Hear, hear.

Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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That is what this is doing. We do not get many opportunities to name significant State investments like the children's hospital after somebody. We have a chance here to recognise the role of women in the modern Irish Republic and should take it fully on board. Senator Fitzpatrick mentioned Dr. Lynn not being a household name. She is right. I did not know Dr. Lynn until this campaign evolved. I studied it a bit more thereafter.

I am fully supportive that the new national children's hospital should be named after Dr. Lynn as a tribute to her remarkable achievements and immense contribution to paediatric healthcare. Dr. Lynn’s pioneering work on child mental health and disability studies has had a profound impact on the well-being of children and their families. By naming the hospital after her, Ireland would honour her legacy and continue her vision for compassionate and comprehensive care. Dr. Lynn's tireless support for social justice and equal access to healthcare aligns perfectly with the mission of the children's hospital. Throughout her career she championed the rights of marginalised children and works to reduce health disparities. Naming the hospital after her would serve as a powerful symbol of Ireland's commitment to inclusivity, fairness and the highest standards of care for all children.

Dr. Lynn's influence extends beyond her academic and research achievements. She was a mentor, educator and role model, inspiring countless individuals in the medical field. By attaching her name to the national children's hospital, Ireland would inspire future generations of healthcare professionals to embody her values and continue her legacy of excellence.

Dr. Lynn's groundbreaking contribution to paediatric medicine, her unwavering commitment to social justice and a dedication to improving children's lives make her a deserving candidate for the honour of having the new national children's hospital named after her. It would be a fitting tribute to an extraordinary impact and a source of inspiration for generations to come. I support the motion.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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Last year my colleagues in the Seanad Independent group and I tabled a motion to name the children's hospital after Dr. Lynn. The motion was held without debate and passed by the Seanad.It was a rare moment of partisanship with members of the Opposition and I happy to be speaking on this again today. Dr. Kathleen Lynn was an incredible woman whose life reflected the development of the State. Many women who contributed to the struggle for Irish independence were erased from history or had their roles downplayed. In recent years, historians, journalists and now politicians like ourselves have made attempts to pay tribute to their legacy. I will provide a brief summary of the life of Kathleen Lynn. I hope it will become evident why the hospital should be named after her.

Dr. Lynn contributed to the Rising in 1916 by being the chief medical officer for the Irish Citizen Army and ran one of the most important hospitals for children's health in the early years of the State. Dr. Lynn was a Sinn Féin politician, activist and medical doctor. She was born in County Mayo to a wealthy Church of Ireland family. Dr. Lynn first became politically active while working in Liberty Hall during the 1913 Lockout. She worked with Countess Markievicz and others in the soup kitchens. At that time, she also associated with James Connolly. Eventually, she served in Connolly's Irish Citizen Army in 1916. In addition, she was also involved in the suffragette movement. In 1916, she used her car to run guns into Dublin weeks before the Rising. Dr. Lynn was also stationed at City Hall. From this post, she treated the wounded. The position was recaptured by British forces on the evening of Easter Monday. After this, Dr. Lynn was arrested and imprisoned in Ship Street, Richmond Barracks, Kilmainham and Mountjoy Gaol.

Dr. Lynn also served as an executive and anti-treaty Sinn Féin Deputy in Dáil Éireann between 1923 and 1927. However, she did not take her seat in Dáil Éireann as she adhered to the abstentionist policy. Instead of taking her seat, she committed herself to other important causes. Dr. Lynn and other female members of Sinn Féin helped to establish St. Ultan's Children's Hospital. At the time, the care of infants was not a high priority for the medical profession in general. Infant mortality rates were very high and paediatric care was in the early stages of development. Despite the continued opposition of the male-dominated Irish medical establishment, Dr. Lynn worked tirelessly for the poor and the oppressed, helped provide quality medical care, conducted research into the causes of tuberculosis and, ultimately, helped manage wide-scale vaccination. A sharp reduction in the incidence of the disease is credited to her. In her personal life, she was an advocate for the Irish language within the Church of Ireland.

She is a person who represents many groups in our nation. I ask my colleagues to support the motion. Senator Fitzpatrick has done significant work. I thank her and our colleagues in the Gallery today for all the work they have done in this regard. I want the House to support this motion not just to pay tribute to the important work done by Dr. Kathleen Lynn, but also to commemorate all women who helped to develop Ireland into the country that it is today. I was a little bit disappointed to hear Senator Kyne talk about Kathleen Lynn in the manner he did today. I am sure that, if Fine Gael was in government when its new leader comes in, it would name the hospital the Heather Humphreys Hospital or the Helen McEntee Hospital. However, this particular woman contributed a great deal to the history of the State and this would be a fitting tribute to her. Everybody in here has agreed to name this hospital after Kathleen Lynn.

Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus roimh an rún. Gabhaim buíochas le moltóirí an rúin anocht. Cuirim fearadh na fáilte roimh na cuairteoirí ó theaghlaigh 1916 atá linn sa Ghailearaí don phlé anocht. I thank the proposers of this important motion. I had not intended to speak on it. I just wanted to come in as a courtesy to Dr. Lynn and the women we are reflecting on tonight and to really listen to the contributions to learn a bit more about her. As others have said, she may have been forgotten and lost in the footnotes of history. Senator Kyne lays the blame for that at our feet. He may well do so. We were not in charge of the school curriculum and the media in this State for decades but, nevertheless, he can make the points he wishes to make in that regard. I heard very similar arguments made by previous Fine Gael speakers about changing the names of places such as Dingle to An Daingean, suggesting that could not be done because it might confuse people and upset the apple cart. These arguments are very familiar to me because, when I was a councillor, the political make-up in Belfast City Hall started to reflect the societal make-up and diversity of the city and we started to talk about how to ensure that the names of civic spaces and important places reflected all of us in our diversity and all those historical figures who are very worthy of remembrance and reflection. It was then that we started to hear people saying that we had to be careful in case we set a precedent and asking who would police it. I have heard those arguments before. I did not think they were particularly worthwhile then and I do not think they are particularly worthwhile now.

In speaking about Dr. Lynn tonight, it is important that we reflect on the role of women, not least during the revolutionary period. All of this has made me think about another female figure, who was mentioned by Senator Sherlock earlier: Winifred Carney. Winifred Carney was a contemporary of Dr. Lynn and also a member of the Irish Citizen Army. Does it not say something that all of these women figures were socialists as well as republicans? She was James Connolly's aide-de-camp and was stationed in the GPO garrison during the Rising. She was known as the typist with the Webley because she was famous for having her typewriter under one arm and her Webley on her waist. Winifred Carney went on to stand for Sinn Féin in east Belfast in a constituency in which some of us would later stand, Belfast Pottinger.

While I in no way mean to take away from Dr. Lynn, because I support the motion and naming the children's hospital in her honour, which is the right thing to do, I am reminded of a story in the context of all of the issues we are discussing. After the surrender order was given, an order that Winifred Carney typed up to be despatched by Elizabeth O'Farrell and others around the city, Pearse ordered the evacuation of the GPO. He insisted that the women had to go and that included Winifred Carney and Elizabeth O'Farrell. Winifred Carney stood her ground and said she would not go and leave the injured James Connolly as she was his aide-de-camp. Pearse eventually won her over, although I do not know how he did so. He insisted that the women remove their Irish Citizen Army regalia and their Sam Browne belts so that they would not be identified as having taken part in the Rising if they were to come upon one of the British Army checkpoints around Dublin city at that time. Not only did Winifred Carney refuse to hand over her regalia, but she took a bayonet and carved her name into the back of her belt saying that she was going to make sure that, if she was stopped, the soldiers would know exactly who she was and what she was doing.

These women were unabashed and unashamed of their role. Likewise, we should be unabashed and unashamed about honouring them. This is really appropriate and truly the right way to honour Dr. Kathleen Lynn. As Senators Black and Sherlock have touched on, the naming of the hospital in this way is key and fundamental and, by and large, it has support across this House. However, the most fitting tribute to Kathleen Lynn and all those women would be a change in society to ensure that it cherishes all the children of the national equally and that it delivers upon and ultimately fulfils the promise of the Republic that Dr. Lynn fought and gave so much for. I hope we will see that come to pass. A Dublin where children are sleeping in hotels and cars and where people cannot access medical care, regardless of how fancy, shiny and new the hospital might be, is not the Dublin that Kathleen Lynn would want to see more than 100 years later. Nevertheless, I support the motion tonight. I thank and commend the proposers. I again acknowledge the presence of the families here tonight. I look forward to the naming of the hospital but, more importantly, to the realisation of the Republic that Kathleen Lynn wanted so much.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, and his guests to the House and thank him for being here.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thought it very important to come to support my colleagues and others in the House with regard to the naming of the national children's hospital. I hope we will get the name of Dr. Kathleen Lynn onto that particular building.I also welcome the people in the Gallery.

I compliment my party colleagues, Senators Fitzpatrick, Ardagh and Clifford-Lee. Like Senator Casey, I knew of Kathleen Lynn but did not know much about her. In recent months and weeks, in particular, it has been an experience finding out all those things about her. The more I read and the more research I have, I realise this was a very special person. Many references have been made to the values of the hospital. The name of the new hospital should reflect the values that will inform the care it provides for generations to come. What better name to have attached to that than Dr. Kathleen Lynn? She did so much in a very difficult time when there was little money and shocking poverty, and children were dying because of neglect. She was a west of Ireland woman who was born in County Mayo in 1874. She was deeply affected by the abject poverty and disease that ravaged the lives of local people in the aftermath of the Great Famine. As I come from Strokestown, County Roscommon, I know quite a lot about the Great Famine and what it did to people in that part of the country.

At just 16 years of age, Kathleen Lynn decided to become a doctor. She studied medicine at the Catholic University of Ireland's medical school on Cecilia Street and graduated in 1899. Following that graduation, she conducted her internship at Holles Street Hospital, the Rotunda Hospital, the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital and the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum. In 1898, she was appointed the first woman resident doctor at Dublin's Adelaide Hospital but staff opposition to her appointment meant she did not take up the post, which was highly regrettable. She completed her postgraduate work in the United States in the early 1900s before working as a duty doctor at hospitals in the city of Dublin as part of her wider general practice, based in her home at 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines. She became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1909 and was promoted to clinical assistant at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in the same year.

Dr. Lynn was a member of the executive committee of the Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association from 1903 and was also said to be on friendly terms with the suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst. She supported the workers during the 1913 Lock-out and worked with Constance Markievicz and others in the soup kitchens at Liberty Hal,l becoming close to Markievicz and James Connolly, In 1913, at the request of Constance Markievicz, she treated Helena Molony - this was referred to - who stayed with Dr. Lynn while she recuperated, which was an excuse to have long talks that converted Dr. Lynn to the national movement. This lady had many other attributes.

I recognise Senator Kyne and fair play to him for being brave enough to say what he said, but that is not what this evening is about. I am so glad that there is widespread support for the motion across the House. I admire everyone who have spoken in favour of this move. I only hope it will become a reality.

Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I would also-----

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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Sorry. The Minister of State is to reply and Senator Fitzpatrick is summing up. I ask Senator Byrne to keep within three minutes.

Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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Yes. I will simply endorse the earlier comments of colleagues. Senator Fitzpatrick has been so enthusiastic about this issue and in educating the rest of us about it. I pay tribute to her for her work in this space.

Colleagues have asked what this is about. It is not just about the naming of a hospital. It is about recognising the role of women in Irish medicine and healthcare and, more widely, in Irish society. In many ways, history has always been about establishment men. That is who wrote the history and that has been the story for so long. We have a chance to rewrite it. Even in this building, the Women on Walls project has rightly shown that there have been women who made significant contributions to the development of this State over a period. This is rightly about recognising Dr. Lynn for her very significant contributions, as others who outlined her history have said. It is equally about recognising the role of those women, some known and some not so well known, who have contributed to make this country the great place it is today.

If you read Kathleen Lynn's diaries from the 1910s and 1920s and read about the abject poverty in this country - I am not saying we do not have problems today - and compare the society we have today with that of a century ago, they are miles apart. This is now one of the safest places in the world for childbirth. There are more opportunities here for people when they are children and as they grow up. They are safe as regards the support they have in healthcare. Our ambition, and this would be the ambition of people like Kathleen Lynn, should be to have the best children's hospital in the world, and that this be the best place in which to be a child anywhere in the world, which should include access to healthcare as well as education and other services. In a fitting way, the best way to be able to do that is to recognise the contribution of all those women who have brought us to where we are today. It is my view, and I hope the Government supports this, that as a symbol of that, we recognise Dr. Kathleen Lynn and name the new national children's hospital after her.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I call the Minister of State. I ask him to conclude at 6.25 p.m. to allow Senator Fitzpatrick reply to the debate.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. There were 13 contributors, which shows the great interest in the national maternity hospital. I acknowledge the relatives of the 1916 Relatives Association. The people who were involved in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence were an amazing group. My grandmother was a member of Cumann na mBan. I come from a republican background so I understand how important that period is. Many years ago, my grandmother stayed with us not long before she passed away. She was well into her 80s at that stage and asked to be taken to see Eamon de Valera. I was obviously on the other side to him but she said they had a lot more in common than separated them. I met de Valera as a very small child. The people up to the War of Independence were an amazing group. It is something that is very close to me. Women made a tremendous contribution at all levels to the foundation of our State across every area, which I am very conscious of.

The undertaking of a children's hospital project and programme shows the commitment of the Government to develop paediatric services for children and young people. The Minister for Health acknowledges the importance of the naming of the new children's hospital as a key enabler in the strategic reform of healthcare services for children and young people for generations to come. A clear name and identity are essential for identification purposes to enable the organisation to raise awareness of services and imbue the name with positive messages and associations. To go back to the point raised by many as regards the naming of the hospital, we all accept this hospital will make a phenomenal difference to patient care for children. The Government will not oppose the motion. Children's Health Ireland is currently undertaking a branding process following which the Government will make a decision on the naming of the new children's hospital in due course. It is a Government decision.

I will take the opportunity to bring focus and attention to the important topic of the new children's hospital and to update the House on the strategic importance of that hospital and progress to date. The hospital will truly transform what paediatric care is delivered in Ireland. The new children's hospital building is at the heart of this transformation and is informed by the paediatric model of care. It will bring acute and paediatric hospital services and specialities in Children's Health Ireland under one roof for the first time leading to improved outcomes and better experiences for children, young people and their families. It is a much-needed and much-deserved investment in children and young people, and in the dedicated staff working in children's healthcare who are currently providing excellent care. The much-needed reform will support the delivery of expert tertiary and quaternary care and treatment for all children and young people, who represent 25% of the population, in world-class state-of-the-art facilities.

The national children's hospital will provide 39 distinct clinical specialities all in one location.We are building something unique in the history of our healthcare system in Ireland. It will act as a hub for acute paediatric care and services nationally with clear links to all regional and local paediatric units. The paediatric model of care strongly advocates this integrated networking structure with the new children’s hospital acting as a hub for acute paediatric care nationally. Within this framework the new children’s hospital will have robust links with regional and local acute paediatric units fully aligned with Sláintecare. The new children’s hospital will also have a positive impact on paediatric healthcare for the island of Ireland, providing tertiary and quaternary paediatric services on an all-island basis, where agreed between the Department of Health and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland. The hospital and wider network will substantially develop children’s 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.

On completion, the 12-acre main hospital site at St. James's Hospital will consist of a seven-storey structure with 6,150 internal spaces, of which 4,600 will be clinical rooms. There will be 380 individual inpatient en-suite rooms, all of which will have a dedicated place for a parent or guardian to sleep. They will make it easier for families with children or young people who need to stay in hospital overnight and in some cases for much longer periods. The new children’s hospital will have 60 critical care beds and 93 day beds, 22 theatres, including specialised theatres for cardiac, neuro and orthopaedic surgery, 110 outpatient examination rooms, and four acres of outdoor space for children and their families spread across 14 gardens and courtyards. It will have 1,000 underground car-parking spaces. The new national children’s hospital will be Ireland’s first digital public hospital with significantly streamlined medical records that will be securely accessed through electronic health records.

Sustainability has been embedded into the design of the new children’s hospital. It is one of the few hospital buildings in the world to have been awarded the BREEAM excellent rating in design. BREEAM is a world-leading sustainability certificate scheme for buildings. The design positivity addresses resource demand. It considers and addresses issues related to emissions, waste streams, noise, air quality, transport and ecology impact. These designs will ensure that the new children’s hospital is fit for purpose for generations to come.

With regard to satellite centres, we are already seeing investment in development in the new children’s hospital with two new paediatric centres in Tallaght and Connolly hospitals, 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 CHI in Connolly hospital. In the first three months of this year, 6,088 children presented to the urgent care centre at CHI in Connolly hospital. Some 15,000 outpatients attended in Connolly hospital in 2022 and 3,168 attended in the first three months of this year. More than 36,000 children presented to the emergency care unit in CHI Tallaght, with 8,614 presenting in the first three months of this year. CHI Tallaght had more than 4,000 outpatients in 2022, with 1,457 attendances in the first three months of this year. Both of the satellite centres provide a new model of care fully aligned with Sláintecare, ensuring the right care is provided in the right place at the right time.

I will ensure I finish within the requisite time to allow the proposer of the Private Members’ motion, Senator Fitzpatrick, time to come back in.

Children’s Health Ireland will take all steps to ensure the optimisation of the operational period post substantial completion. The integration of services across the existing health sites is the first step in the integration programme, which includes the ongoing provision of cross-city services in operational structures and clinical directorates. Children’s Health Ireland manages the provision of services with a citywide approach across all sites through a patient flow solution that matches patient unscheduled admissions to beds and tracks their movements.

I also highlight the children’s health strategy for research 2021 to 2025 which is the first instalment of a multiyear initiative to implement academic healthcare and provide child-centred research-led and learning-informed healthcare and a high standard of safety and excellence.

We want to see the children’s hospital open as quickly as possible. The Department and the HSE are working with the contractors to progress the hospital in a streamlined way. It will take six months to commission once construction is complete.

I thank the House for the opportunity to discuss the important topic of the new children’s hospital and address the progress made to date as well as plans for the future. I will take back the points raised to the Minister. They were made in a genuine way. The critical point is that we all want to see the national children’s hospital open and operational for the children of Ireland on an all-Ireland basis as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank my colleague, Senator Clifford-Lee, and all the Senators who have spoken on this important motion. I welcome that we have clarity on the naming of the hospital and that it is a Government decision. I accept that the Government’s number one priority is on the commissioning and opening of the hospital. That is exactly what its priority should be and we fully support that.

I also acknowledge the contrary and questioning views. That is healthy. It is important that we question decisions and proposals. I will respectfully disagree with the proposition that the name would be in any way inappropriate. I believe that naming the hospital is not just about our paying tribute to Kathleen Lynn, about whom everybody has spoken so eloquently not just as a medical doctor but as a politician and somebody who made an enormous contribution to society, as a feminist and suffragette. It is also about acknowledging all the unnamed women, the women of previous generations who have been written out of our history and are not household names. Most important, it is about setting an ambition for the future of the delivery of healthcare.

The Minister of State eloquently and comprehensively outlined what a state-of-the-art, world-class health facility the new children’s hospital is going to be. That is as it should be. However, what is really important is not just the technology, the built environment or the expertise but the heart of that hospital. It is the values of all those who will be cared for and all those who will do the caring in that hospital. The values that Kathleen Lynn epitomised were equality, competence, professionalism and compassion. More than anything, patients need compassion and understanding. Dr. Lynn was a women who had them in abundance.

We may achieve some small progress in increasing her name recognition if we name the hospital after her. However, what will be achieved in generations to come by all those who serve and care for children and their families in that hospital, in promoting the values that she lived by, will be an enormous gift for us to give. I appreciate there are dissenting voices. I also appreciate that a previous motion was passed unanimously in the House, albeit without debate. That is part of the reason we brought forward the motion again. It is important that there is a strong mandate for this. We can debate the process by which the naming of buildings or any other structures takes place. However, this is vital social infrastructure. It is going to be a public hospital, as the Minister of State said, and a State intervention into the future. We want to set a mark and a value for that State intervention and the State provision of healthcare services, that those services will be provided based on patient need, compassion and social justice. If those who dissent wish to call a vote, let us have a vote and put it on the record of the House. Otherwise, I want it to go forward from this House that there is unanimity here. That will be a strong message to the Government. The branding exercise taking place is obviously necessary and I support its completion. However, I caution against our defaulting to a position of comfort, security and sameness. Irish people are unique. We have a unique culture and unique personalities. Let us not dumb it down. Let us not pretend by having some corporate, uniform, same medical facility.Let us be clear and proud that our finest, and it will be the finest, healthcare facility for children and families is one that is not only technically and operationally of the highest standard, but is also of the most human and highest values of compassion and social justice. I ask the Minister of State to take that message back to Government and urge them to name the National Children's Hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn.