In May 2017, the Minister for Health asked for a month in order to resolve the issues of public concern about the ownership and ethos of the proposed new national maternity hospital. The Minister was trying to square the circle of the proposals in the Mulvey report and how to provide for the type of hospital that would be publicly owned with a non-religious ethos. Some 18 months have passed since that date and no progress has been made. Can the Taoiseach tell us where things stand on the proposed new national maternity hospital and can he give an undertaking that any proposed agreement on ownership of that hospital will be brought before the House before being signed off by the Government?

The Government is committed to the national maternity hospital relocation project which involves the development of a new maternity hospital on the campus of St. Vincent's University Hospital at Elm Park. The new hospital will be funded by public money and is included in Project Ireland 2040. The development will represent a flagship project as part of the national maternity strategy and will constitute the largest single investment ever made in maternity services in Ireland.

It is vitally important that the legal and governance arrangements associated with this significant State investment are robust. A draft legal framework is currently being finalised and that will ensure that the State investment in the new hospital will be protected and that the new maternity hospital will be clinically and operationally independent of St. Vincent's University Hospital. Once finalised, the proposals will be submitted for consideration to the Government, the national maternity hospital and St. Vincent's Healthcare Group. The Minister for Health wants to assure the House that patient care in the new hospital will be delivered without religious, ethnic or other distinction and that any medical procedure that is legal in this State will be carried out there.