Jennifer O'Connell

speaker

2,353 appearances 8 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 4d ago

Jennifer O'Connell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 2.

Appearances

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The Women's Podcast · Festival women / Sally Hayden on love during wartime · 4 Jun 2026 podcast

So when private clinics traditionally run by consultants outside of their contracted public hours suddenly become private clinics, that puts a squeeze on the public system.

And also the spirit of Solange Care, which these consultants have signed up to because they've signed a contract, is that there should be no more private systems.

So what has Sean Daly said?

He said he didn't have a problem with it, that he knew that they were doing it and he was happy for them to go on doing it.

Now, the Rotunda seem to be kind of, I wouldn't say backing down, but, you know, I understand that they are very much in the spirit of we'll have consultations with the minister and we'll come to a satisfactory conclusion for all concerned.

But, you know, our maternity services are under strain and that's despite the fact that the birth rate is falling.

But there are other factors that are putting more and more pressure on the public maternity system, which includes, you know, women aren't giving birth when they're older.

So they're more likely to have more complicated pregnancies.

Premature babies are being delivered at earlier stages and are more viable and have a better chance of survival.

But they obviously require prolonged care as well.

And I think for me, the most galling thing about it is that something that Fintan wrote in his column, he points out that the Rotunda's website in its offer to its private maternity customers actually boasts about the fact that it's exploiting the hospital's public resources.

So it says, and I'll read it out to you because it is kind of worth hearing.

As a patient of the Rotunda Private, which doesn't exist, I might remind you.

This is the Rotunda Hospital, yes.

So you're a patient of, I suppose, a consultant who's going to see you privately.

So as a patient of the Rotunda Private, you have the best of both worlds.

The personal attention and care from one of our consultants, along with state-of-the-art facilities of the Rotunda Hospital.

A further benefit is that the consultant will have access to all of the hospital facilities and any additional services necessary to deal with all aspects of pregnancy care, no matter how complicated or acute the system might be.

I suppose the bottom line is that all women should be entitled to that.

All women should be getting the personal attention and care from a consultant in a hospital and access to the state of the art facilities.

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