Hospital Facilities
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I listened carefully to it and read the words. I heard the Taoiseach today and listened to the Minister for Health on the radio this morning. Everybody shares the frustration. I understand the Minister is going to meet the master of the Rotunda, Professor Sean Daly, in two weeks. I met him yesterday. It is vital that when the Minister for Health goes to meet the master of the Rotunda, she brings options to the table. What we need here is not just collective lamentation about how frustrated we are and how wrong this decision is. We need to know how we can now speed up the process.
The Taoiseach today talked about emergency critical infrastructure legislation. That is brilliant; it is fantastic. He asked for support from around the House. The Government will have full support if we can have some innovations in legislation to provide for critical healthcare capacity and move this along fast. I do not doubt for a second that the human care being provided in the Rotunda Hospital is second to none. What is lacking is infrastructural assets. What we need now is a collective agreement that if emergency legislation is needed, we will do it fast. We are talking about one of the busiest maternity hospitals in Europe. We are talking about a maternity hospital that provides care to an incredibly vulnerable cohort in its immediate vicinity and a vulnerable cohort nationwide of babies who require critical care.
If the Minister of State were to take a message back to the Minister from me, I would ask her to act with urgency, to be innovative in her approach and, when she meets with the master of the Rotunda in two weeks' time, to bring options to the table because the staff, clinicians and midwives in the Rotunda Hospital have done everything to this point. The preservation of architecture is never more important than the preservation of life.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17