National Maternity Hospital: Statements Dail Éireann — 2022-03-31 ============================================================ Alan Farrell (FG), Dublin Fingal An understandable distrust has been articulated in this House on several occasions and, indeed, outside it. Whether that is legitimate in 2022 is not for me to determine; it is for others to feel. I understand Opposition Members making the statements they have made this evening and on other occasions. However, the bottom line for me is what the Minister has said. Deputy Cullinane is right it is not new. It has been said many times and I do not think it is going to change. The reality of the situation versus what people might want to achieve are two different things. The Minister has said he will not bring any proposal to Government unless it provides absolute assurances that all legally permissible services will be provided in the new hospital and protects the State's investment in the new public hospital. If the religious institution is removed from the ownership of the site, the entire debate becomes moot. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-03-31/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:19+00:00 Sitting date: 2022-03-31