If the Deputy is saying that the institution is deeply worried about the loss of its independence or that St. Vincent's will be taking it over, I do not hear that from the clinicians in Holles Street.

I will get back to the key point I want to make. It is not just the conditions. Under the national maternity strategy, it is the national director of acute hospital services who will have ultimate accountability and that is important to remember.

It is the State-----

-----and State policy that will decide how this is run.

In the context of the report on the front page of The Irish Times today, the Cabinet decided on Tuesday to: open up all the documentation; make sure it was fully transparent; allow the Oireachtas committee to examine, question and investigate; and for the Minister for Health to come back to the Cabinet with observations from that process. That is what was decided at Cabinet. We will have to wait and see what will be decided at Cabinet in two weeks' time. It is not decided on the front page of an Irish newspaper. No…

In the constitutional arrangement, the framework and all the legal analysis and documentation. I refer back to another article in The Irish Times today which states that various independent legal experts were asked if they think there is still a concern in that regard. From what I read, the vast majority of those with expertise in the area of medical legal matters stated that should no longer be a concern. It was important that this was addressed. This matter is complex. It is complex because the charters and rules…

I am just asking the question because it would involve is a debate on a wider matter. Catherine Day carried out her analysis and compiled a report on how we might manage that. I am of the view that it can be managed and that we can retain a voluntary health system that will be a public health system that will Sláintecare-based and that puts communities first. It should not all be led by and centred on hospitals and consultants. That change needs to come. This new institution will not answer, solve or change all of …

I did not say that.

I am familiar with St. Vincent's University Hospital. It is my local hospital and many of my family and friends have been treated there.

Can I answer the question?

The Deputy asked me about the nature of its secular values or its-----

I will try to answer if I can.

The Deputy asked me how we can be sure that the ethos of St. Vincent's is secular. That is one of the questions she asked. One of the analysis documents I read today looked at its objectives or mission statement. Whether they are religious or secular, the values referred to in that document are ones we would all agree on. They are not two separate or completely different worlds. The values the hospital wants to deliver - I have seen it deliver them - relate to valuing and protecting life, the Hippocratic oath and t…

It is secular, but that does not mean it is completely divorced from the past because it has often done a lot of that. I have seen first hand the incredible care that it provides to the patients. We need to make sure that the skills it has are also available to the women in the national maternity hospital not an ambulance ride away but in a corridor beside it. That is why this approach is being taken.

I do not agree with the Deputy that the shortage of zoned land is the cornerstone of the housing problem. I also do not agree with him about cutting the likes of tax, VAT and so on. That would just go to the developers rather than the householders. The Housing for All strategy the Government is delivering is the right approach to tackling this. Central to it has to be the national planning framework. At its core are three key objectives: better-balanced regional development, more compact development and low-carbon …

That is not against Dublin but Dublin is under such pressure at the moment because so much of the development is happening on the east coast. We need better-balanced regional development. That will not happen in Cork, Limerick, Galway or Waterford just by zoning ever-outwards which has been the characteristic of development. It will happen by the measures the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is introducing with the State intervening not just in social housing but also through the Land Development Agency. Development happe…

The Housing for All strategy is the right approach and it is starting to deliver results. In the first quarter of this year, my understanding is that some 6,000 houses were completed, built and delivered. In the year to February of the previous year, there were 35,000 commencements. It is not enough and we need to get better-balanced regional development to get more housing in other parts of the country than the east but it is working. We have some control over it because it is State led. We are putting in signific…

I am looking forward to going to Kerry in June. I will look forward to calling to Kilgarvan or any place in the county.

We might go out-----

I accept what the Deputy said. What he described is intolerable and the details provided in response to the question from Deputy Cullinane raise serious concerns. I cannot let this pass without noting that if overcrowding is the real issue, then I can think of one hospital that is affected more than any other, and that is Holles Street hospital. It is the most overcrowded hospital and that is why we must act and make decisions in this regard. The solution to this issue also involves the delivery of Sláintecare. Tha…