Fergus Finlay: Trust is key to securing an independent maternity hospital

Aileen Moon with six-month-old Donnacha Moon- Hannon at a protest last weekend outside Leinster House against the ownership and governance structure of a new national maternity hospital. Picture: PA
THERE was a lot of frank stuff on my Twitter feed over the last seven days — most of it polite and decent, even if a lot of it was trenchant. But it taught me something really useful.
I wrote a column here last week in which I set out my support for the proposed National Maternity Hospital on the grounds of St Vincent’s, and the reasons for that support. That column got more than 60,000 impressions on social media. I haven’t counted in detail the fors and againsts I got, but I’d say it was 50/50. That’s an opinion poll of its own kind, and it proves (in my humble opinion) one thing. The people who care about this issue are divided right down the middle.