-----or the access women will enjoy to all these services under the agreements. It has not yet been explained to me how the 300-year lease agreement undermines the provision of those services-----

-----or how it undermines the clinical, operational and financial independence of the new national maternity hospital. It does not.

The constitution of the hospital is very clear and the operating licence provided by the HSE to the new hospital is very clear about the obligation to implement and provide all services legally permissible under the law. It is not comparable to Roe v . Wade because the Oireachtas has acted here, and the people have acted via referendum.

We are not comparable to the judicial situation in the United States at all in this regard.

The Oireachtas has legislated here and the provision of all the services that legislation allows is, without question, legally guaranteed in a series of legal instruments that have been published. That is beyond question at this point.

The new hospital is the national maternity hospital, not St. Vincent's Healthcare Group.

The Deputy has had his say. Let us not try to deepen the plot, for whatever reason the Deputy might want to deepen it. Many conspiracy theories are floating about and to nail one of them, the Vatican should have nothing to do with healthcare in public hospitals, has nothing to do with healthcare at this particular maternity hospital and will have nothing to do with it. Forget about that, since it is totally out of the equation. The involvement of any religious ethos is out of the question. That is clear in the lega…

If I was starting on it, from now onwards, hospitals would be fully State hospitals. Co-location was correctly identified by experts in medicine and health as being the optimal configuration to produce better outcomes for women, with maternity hospitals co-located on tertiary hospital sites. While it has happened for other locations, the only place it has happened with a major hospital is at Cork University Maternity Hospital, which is on the site of Cork University Hospital. The idea that there would be a relation…

The Government has very strong legal advice as well, via the Attorney General, on the cast-iron nature of the legal guarantees that are provided in these documents to underpin clinical, legal and operational independence of the new national maternity hospital. Let us make that point. Protecting the State's interests was critical in the legal agreements that have been arrived at. Most importantly, better outcomes for women and for babies delivered at the maternity hospital has to be the key rationale and motivation …

There is also the physical transporting of women with serious complications from one hospital site to another. We must put this to an end. We have to commence putting that to an end, and there is still a journey ahead of us in getting a hospital built. As I have said, one substantial maternity hospital in 20-odd years is not good enough.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for his consistency in highlighting it, and for his good memory of the significant meeting we had three years ago today at the Grand Parade in terms of the Defence Forces. I take his point more generally that there is clearly a need to upgrade significantly and improve resources and capability in respect of our Defence Forces. We need not just to maintain sufficient military capability but add to and strengthen it. The Government wanted to get the balance right and have…

Obviously, the key issue will be resources and the level of expenditure increases we can accommodate within the broad range of challenges and pressures on Government expenditure more generally. We accept the basic point that we need to enhance and strengthen our military capability, not least because the world has changed. The immoral and unjustifiable war on Ukraine in many ways reveals certain vulnerabilities in European-wide security and the security of the European Union. Moreover, in light of other threats, fr…

I am conscious that we have a day and half this week to get business done in the plenary session. Many items will be covered by the House today and tomorrow including: the finance legislation; the Sinn Féin Private Member's motion; the Topical Issue debates; oral questions to the Ministers for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Housing, Local Government and Heritage; two sets of Leaders' Questions; statements on the Government's response to the accommodation needs of those fleeing Ukraine; and f…

We are not in a position to facilitate a debate on the national maternity hospital this week.

I am open to it. I am not against debate but the Government-----

-----also has to take decisions.

It is up to the House. The Minister is available for a debate on agriculture. The Deputy has been asking for one.

It is Report and Final Stages that are being taken.

It has gone through Committee Stage. There was an extensive debate on Committee Stage.

Ah, come on.