Elaine Loughlin

And it really would give us the type of healthcare system, if introduced completely, that everybody, I think, could aspire to, where no one...

is treated differently based on whether you have private health insurance or whether you can pay.

The problem is here that I think the maternity services are in a unique position that they will become null and void privately because of Solange Care, as opposed to you'll always have your private hospitals for if you want to get your cataract done or your hip replaced, etc.

regardless of whether Sláinte Care is in existence or not, that will always be there in tandem with it.

And also people are concerned that, yes, Sláinte Care does represent, I suppose, a utopia.

And in order for it to work properly, I think you will need to level up services rather than come down.

So if...

the public health service was there and could perhaps offer a woman who was very concerned, perhaps had mental health issues or had a complex pregnancy, that she would get that continuity of care throughout her pregnancy.

In the public health service, why would she choose private?

That's not there at the moment.

Now, if we do have a situation that we can offer that type of service to women, I think this issue wouldn't have been as, I don't think it would have sparked as much fury or anger

And another point I want to bring into this is I think many people, women, families, didn't actually realise that this was happening.

So again, it's going back to messaging similar to the messaging around migration in this country, that perhaps the general population, until the consultants and the master of the Rotunda spoke out about this service is going to end, people weren't actually aware of that.

Well, you can see that definitely the consultants and the masters have a lot of clout when it comes to decisions.

But unusually, I think this week we did see the minister coming out.

And I think previously, perhaps they were little kingdoms across the country where, you know, as I said, masters of hospitals rule the roost.

But Jennifer Carl McNeill does seem to be coming out strongly now and setting down the rules and saying,

making sure that they are adhered to.

She's made enemies now with the Master of Maternity Hospital, with consultants, with pharmacists, with the board of the Mater Hospital, and she's only been in there a short time.

It remains to be seen, though, whether she has chosen the right battles and whether perhaps...