Grace Boland

So firstly, I'd like to welcome the decision of the Board of the Rotunda this week.

The Minister absolutely is committed to sláinte care and we saw that this week.

We saw Fine Gael, we saw this government committed to sláinte care.

Sláinte care is about providing public health services in our publicly funded hospitals.

And if you're a consultant on a public-only contract, then you are to be providing public services in a public hospital.

Well, I think it's really important to say that there is private maternity cover in our hospitals today.

Well, I think we're probably looking years into the future.

We have many consultants who are on the old contract who are continuing to provide maternity

private maternity cover.

But fundamentally, what Sláinte Care is about and what the Minister is doing is strengthening the maternity care in our publicly funded hospitals and it allows her to bring forward reforms for all women.

This is about ensuring that women don't have to consider whether there's costs, whether they need to go private.

It's about improving our maternity cover in our publicly funded hospitals.

Well, the reality is we had an old system.

Sláinte care is moving us away from that system.

As I said, we've seen Fine Gael and this government really committed to sláinte care and providing public only health care.

But the reality is, David, they're on contracts.

You know, we couldn't force them to move on to these contracts.

They were given the option to do so.

So for the moment, we will have to balance things.

I have full confidence in our minister, Minister Jennifer Carol MacNeill, to deal with the issues that Liam is speaking about.