Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has called for "the utmost clarity" on the future governance of the National Maternity Hospital and said the days of "interference by religious authorities" in maternity services are in the past.
Ms Fitzgerald said on Monday she thought there would be "significant progress" in the coming days on the issues that had "arisen" and that Minister for Health Simon Harris was working on achieving clarity.
"What's really important at present is that we need a modern maternity hospital, we need a new hospital for the women of Ireland. It's badly needed so it has to go ahead and it has to go ahead quickly," the Minister for Justice told reporters at a Garda passing-out ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary.
“What I would say is that the time for interference in any modern maternity hospital for the future, any interference by religious authorities, that time is in the past. And for the future, clearly, women and the country need clarity and that’s what the Minister [for Health] is working to ensure we have. I hope that over the next few days we will see significant progress.
“People want a modern maternity hospital that’s working to best clinical practice and the religious orders and the church has nothing to do with it or with the decisions that are made for women. I think that’s very important in modern Ireland.”
Deal brokered
Asked if she is confident that the deal brokered between the National Maternity Hospital and the St Vincent’s Health Group over the proposed move to the St Vincent’s campus in Elm Park guarantees no such interference, she said: “I think we have to be absolutely sure about that. We have to have the utmost clarity in relation to that because, as I say, this is a hospital for the future.
“We’ve seen what’s happened in the past, we’ve seen the involvement – and that’s not to say that good work hasn’t been done in the fields of health and education – but we’re talking about a modern hospital, we’re talking about a maternity hospital, we’re talking about services for the future for women. And I think the country is very clear that that is about the State running that hospital and that the key decisions are not in any way influenced by any particular religious ethos.”
The Tánaiste was asked if she is convinced that the deal prevents interference by religious orders: “I think people want absolute clarity on it . . . a number of issues have arisen and I think that there’ll be further discussions this week. We need further clarity on a number of those issues and that’s what the Minister is working towards.”