asked the Minister for Health if he will state which of the governors of the Rotunda Hospital or members of the staff approached him to place the site of the proposed memorial to the dead soldiers of the Irish Republican Army at the disposal of the hospital governors, and the date of such approach.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garden of Remembrance.
There were numerous discussions extending over a period of years between representatives of the three Dublin maternity hospitals and officers of the Department in regard to the provision of increased accommodation for the care and treatment of sick infants and each of the hospitals agreed in principle to provide clinics and neo-natal hospital units as one of the measures necessary to reduce the incidence of infant mortality in Dublin.
At a meeting between representatives of the Rotunda Hospital and officers of the Department held on 3rd February, 1949, the representatives in question stated that the accommodation which would be necessary to provide the service visualised would be a large dispensary and out-patients department additional to the existing limited accommodation, a hospital unit to accommodate 30 premature and sick infants and sleeping quarters for the 35 nurses who would be needed for the service. The board was satisfied that it could find a solution of the problem inside the boundaries of its own property after a lapse of a few years, but a more urgent solution was necessary and after examination of the possibility of finding another site or sites, the board was forced to the conclusion that the only possible alternative was the temporary use of the site on the north side of Parnell Square. The representatives of the hospital on the date in question were Mr. A.W. Bayne, a member of the board, and Dr. O'Donel Browne, Master of the Hospital.
The following information is relevant to the Deputy's question:—
(1) The rate of infant mortality——
Oh, now.
Is the Deputy not interested in infant mortality?
It is about time you got out of that. The Government dropped this Garden of Remembrance on grounds of economy.
Order!
As I was saying:—
(1) The rate of infant mortality in the City of Dublin, which is considerably higher than in comparable cities elsewhere, has for many years been the cause of grave concern and has been the subject of close study by successive Ministers charged with responsibility for health services.
(2) Experience elsewhere has shown that the number of infants who die in the neo-natal period, i.e. in the first six weeks of life, in the Dublin area is grossly excessive.
(3) Where so large a proportion of maternity work is based on a small number of maternity hospitals as in Dublin, it is desirable that neo-natal services should be based on such hospitals and that the accommodation for such services should be in the hospitals or immediately adjoining them.
(4) The Rotunda Hospital, which deals with over 35 per cent. of all maternity work in Dublin, is situated in the heart of a commercial area in the centre of the city, a fact which explains the difficulty of finding a suitable site for the purposes of this service.
(5) The proposed use of the site of the Garden of Remembrance for hospital purposes is purely temporary.
For some years. That is what you said.
and:—
(6) It is not inconsistent with the ideals of the soldiers whose memory the Garden of Remembrance is to commemorate that the site of the garden should be used temporarily in an effort to save the lives of the descendants of those soldiers.
Will a site on Leinster Lawn be provided for a national maternity hospital for Holles Street.
Could not some other suitable site have been found in view of the delay about which we have heard so much talk here?
There are ten acres inside the Rotunda grounds.
Which are already built on.
No, they are not built on.
Was any consideration given to the suggestion made at the Dublin Corporation for the acquisition of regional subsidiary institutions for each of the maternity hospitals in the shape of these big tenement houses adjacent to these hospitals?
Consideration was given and very full consideration to every suggestion made. As outlined in the answer, the scheme is that of permanent clinics on suitable sites but while waiting for the permanent clinics on suitable sites this temporary measure was adopted in order to save the lives of infants.
There are plenty of sites available inside the grounds of the Rotunda Hospital itself for this clinic. Everybody knows that.
The Deputy was himself Minister of this particular Department while the infants were dying.
No.
He erected neither a permanent nor a temporary clinic.
As a matter of fact, the proposal for the erection of these clinics was originated by me when I was Minister.