On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 54 of 1,045 decisive votes (16 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF | Sinn Féin | 1,527 | 2020-04-23 – 2026-10-01 |
Membership spells on record: SF 2011-05-25–2016-04-24 · SF 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · SF 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · SF 2024-11-29–present
If the Government is not going to oppose it then it should vote against it. If it is going to support it, then it should implement it. It seems to me that is not what the Government is going to do.
Hear, hear.
Hear, hear.
Are you supporting our motion?
Are you supporting our motion?
Are you supporting our motion? You never said.
I thank all the Deputies on both sides of the House who spoke in this debate. I finish as I started by stating that I want to see a new national maternity hospital. I want it to be built as quickly as possible and to ensure it is a public hospital in public ownership. It is absolutely breathtaking and amazing to see the lengths to which the Government will go to sell what I see as a bad deal. The repeated assertion that black is white and that the State will own the land, when, clearly, the freehold of that land wi…
I thank the Minister for agreeing to take statements. To clarify, this is a session of questions and answers. I believe that is what was agreed so we can go over and back with the Minister. Is that correct?
I will go over and back with the Minister. I thank the Minister for agreeing to this format today. For how long has the State been involved in negotiations with the St. Vincent's Healthcare Group?
It was 2013. How many Ministers have been involved in talks? It will have been James Reilly, the Minister, Deputy Harris, and Deputy Donnelly himself. Was it three Ministers?
We should not forget Deputy Varadkar. There have been four Ministers for Health involved in the negotiations at various times. Last year, some controversy again arose in respect of this issue. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste responded to concerns from Members of the Oireachtas. At that time, the Tánaiste put on the record his concerns regarding governance, ownership and so on. I would imagine that sparked a fresh round of negotiations the Minister will have been involved in. How intense were those negotiations over …
Over what time period were the negotiations conducted?
Was it a year?
There were very intense negotiations at the very highest level involving a lot of time and effort from the Minister. Why all of these negotiations?
Why is there a need for a constitution, a new company and all of these protracted negotiations involving four Ministers over nine years or longer? Why has all of that been necessary?
What is behind the complexity? That is what I am trying to get at. We know it was complex. That is one of the arguments we are making. All of this is very complex. I imagine co-location is part of the reason for that complexity. The lease arrangement is also a complex aspect. Why is the lease arrangement complicated?
Let me make it easier for the Minister.
Let me make it easier. If we were building the hospital on public land, there would not be that complexity. There would be no lease so there would not have been those complex issues to deal with.
I just wanted to clarify that. When the Minister became involved in the talks having come into office, did he state it was his preference for the land to be brought into full public ownership or make a formal request that be done? Is that something he asked for?
Why?