Protestors will be calling for the new National Maternity Hospital to be secular at a Dublin protest today.
They'll gather outside the Dail at 2pm for a demonstration organised by campaigners Our Maternity Hospital.
Spokesperson Anne Conway is encouraging people to take part in the protest:
"We are hoping people will come, and that they will express their anger at what is happening. We've had a massive landslide repeat vote, and we feel that vote will not be honoured if the new hospital has a religious ethos. And we're quite convinced that is going to be the case".
Meanwhile, The Minister for Education, Simon Harris says these protests don't have their facts right:
"I'll never forget Repeal I think it was a really important moment of social change. I just think language like 'betrayal' though isn't helpful. I think it's deeply unhelpful and to be quite frank even a question about the influence of the Catholic church is so misguided, it's factually incorrect. Can you point to me in any way, shape, or form how they'll be any influence by the church-the nuns are gone"?
The new Maternity Hospital has been surrounded in controversy due to the fact that the State will not own the land on which it will be built-St. Vincent's. Instead, it will be leased for 299 years.
Up to recently, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group was owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity. The nuns have now transferred their ownership shares to a company called St Vincent’s Holdings, a not-for-profit charitable entity.
