Women and babies paying price for Government failure

Labour Leader Ivana Bacik TD today raised the issue of the critical care extension at Rotunda maternity hospital at Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil. She said the issue is putting women, babies and frontline healthcare workers at risk, and that it reflects a wider failure by Government to prioritise modern, fit-for-purpose healthcare infrastructure. She called on the Taoiseach to provide immediate clarity on the future of the Rotunda and to ensure that planning and health authorities are aligned to deliver this essential project without further delay.

Deputy Bacik said:

“Families are relying on the Rotunda at some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Premature babies, mothers with complex needs and exhausted healthcare staff are all being asked to make do with facilities that are simply not fit for purpose. The Rotunda is the busiest maternity hospital in Ireland and one of the busiest in Europe, yet space constraints and outdated infrastructure are already impacting on care. That is unacceptable.

“This Government has allowed a critical care project, representing a one hundred million euro investment in neonatal and maternity services, to be stalled by a planning process of its own making.

“An Taoiseach’s response in the Dáil today was deeply disappointing. He side-stepped the core issue and failed to give any clear confirmation of the long-term plan for the Rotunda. His response to me does nothing to address the lack of accountability for how this situation arose or to reassure the families who need certainty now.

“This Government routinely intervenes in planning law when it suits. We have seen emergency legislation brought forward on gas storage and airport capacity because existing planning frameworks were deemed inadequate. The same urgency must now be applied to healthcare. The State’s own Programme for Government commits to expanding maternity and neonatal capacity and to delivering care in safe, modern settings. Those commitments ring hollow when vital projects are left exposed to delay because Departments and agencies fail to robustly support them.

“The failure to progress the Rotunda project sits within a broader pattern of under-investment and delay in women’s healthcare, with ongoing gaps in endometriosis and hyperemesis care, stalled proposals for paid leave following pregnancy loss or for IVF appointments, and long-standing neglect of maternity facilities across Dublin.

“Labour is calling for immediate clarity from Government on the question as to whether  plans to relocate the Rotunda have been formally abandoned; and we are calling for the Department of Health to actively support a renewed planning pathway for the critical care wing, and for Government to ensure that planning law facilitates, rather than frustrates, essential healthcare infrastructure. Women, babies and the staff who care for them deserve better. The Government must act now.”