There is an urgent need to provide a replacement hospital for the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, where conditions are completely unacceptable. It is one of the busiest hospitals in Europe. Staff and patients must contend with extremely overcrowded, cramped and poor conditions in a building that clearly is not fit for purpose. In choosing a site at St. Vincent's University Hospital for the new national maternity hospital it seems that the issues of ownership and ethos were not even considered.

Given the complexities and financial exposure of the old-style model of healthcare in this country, whereby services were essentially outsourced mainly to religious bodies, what is needed now is a modern model of public and secular ownership of our healthcare facilities. Instead, the Minister for Health seems to regard the ownership and ethos of the new hospital as a matter to be decided by two private religious entities, namely, Holles Street and St. Vincent's. A private deal was done between these two entities without any regard to the public interest. The idea of a very valuable hospital asset funded by the taxpayer being gifted to a private entity is outrageous. That this private entity is a religious one is entirely unacceptable and flies in the face of the clearly expressed public opinion in this year's repeal referendum.

The new company, to be called the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC, will be 100% owned by St. Vincent's. Under Article 44 of the Constitution, a religious order can control what it owns, and this right has been upheld by the Supreme Court on a number of occasions. Therefore, irrespective of any assurances or the fanciful idea of a golden chair, the reality is that St. Vincent's will own and control the new national maternity hospital. This reality has now dawned on the Minister for Health who, we are told, is now seeking a public interest director for the board of the new company. I ask the Taoiseach to consider that we will have a new public hospital, to be funded by the taxpayer and operated using public money, and the Minister is pleading for one director on the board to protect the public interest. Apart from the fact that this constitutes an admission that the Mulvey report got it completely wrong, is it not pathetic that the Minister has put himself and taxpayers in this position? Will the Taoiseach now request the Minister to pursue the State purchase of the site at Elm Park in order that this much-needed hospital may be built as an entirely public and secular hospital, thereby protecting the public purse and ensuring that women have access to all health services provided under the law of the land, which should not be governed in any way by Canon Law? Alternatively, will he agree to compulsorily purchase this site and get on with the job?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. It is an issue in which I have a real, personal interest. The national maternity strategy, which was produced when I was Minister for Health, provides for us to co-locate all our maternity hospitals adjacent to or on the campus of adult hospitals. This is the best way to provide modern maternity care. If a pregnancy goes wrong, all the adult services a mother needs, for example, an intensive care unit, vascular surgeons and cardiologists, will be available if she needs their specialist input. Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence, but it does happen. This is why it makes sense to co-locate all our maternity hospitals on the sites of adult hospitals, just as we have done in Cork, for example, and as is the case in Galway.

If we were to start from scratch, we would perhaps do things differently, as is often the case. We would find or purchase a site and build on it a new adult and maternity hospital and defund, close down or abandon those sites currently owned by voluntary hospitals. However, that is not a practical solution. What we have are two voluntary hospitals with existing staff and an existing legal structure, namely, Holles Street and St. Vincent's. We are looking to bring Holles Street onto the site of St. Vincent's and, to the extent necessary, integrate the two hospitals.

It is important we get the governance right, and I am with the Deputy on that. We are working towards a solution whereby the hospital will be owned by the State; the State will control the land on which the hospital is built; the staff will be public servants; the ethos will ensure that any procedure which is legal in this State, including abortion, in vitro fertilisation and tubal ligation, will be available; and the laws that apply in the hospital will be those enacted by this Oireachtas, not Canon Law.

No one is arguing with the need for co-location. The Taoiseach has made a number of statements, including that the site will be controlled by the State. This implies it will be owned by the State. In that case, does he agree with the proposal I put to him that he should give an undertaking that the site be purchased by the State and, if this is not possible, that it be the subject of a compulsory purchase order? This Saturday, the Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare will stage a demonstration on O'Connell Street to express its extreme concern about how this issue is shaping up. The campaign is supported by a wide range of non-governmental organisations, political parties, trade unions, etc. The Taoiseach needs to give an assurance today to those who will be out on the street on Saturday that their fears will be allayed. The only way of doing so in law is by the State actually owning the site as well as the building. Will he give an assurance today that this will be the case? That is the only way we can protect people's right to access healthcare.

I am glad everyone in the House agrees with the principle of co-location, but saying one agrees with something and wanting or demanding something are very different from delivering it. As someone who has spent a good bit of time in government, I understand this more and more. We are not starting from scratch. We have the Coombe, the Rotunda and Holles Street, voluntary hospitals that have existed since before the foundation of the State. It is not a simple matter of closing them down, laying off the staff, getting rid of the board of the NMH, extinguishing its legal identity and setting up from scratch again somewhere else. We are moving existing hospitals to new sites. I have laid out to the Deputy what the Government is trying to achieve in these negotiations, which are still under way, namely, that the hospital will be owned by the State; the land on which it is located will be controlled by the State; the staff in the hospital will be public servants; the ethos will ensure that it is not a religious ethos; any procedure, including any women's health procedure, that is legal in this State will be provided in the hospital; and the laws that apply will be those enacted by this Oireachtas, not Canon Law.

Control does not mean ownership.