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<\/p>\nPlanning permission for a 100 million euro four-storey extension to the maternity hospital was overturned following objections about preserving the architectural heritage of the area<\/p>\n
Rebecca Black, Press Association<\/p>\n
18:36, 08 Mar 2026<\/p>\n
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People take part in an International Women’s Day rally organised by the Labour Party at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin City Centre, supporting the Rotunda Hospital, and maternity healthcare. (Image: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Maternity services in Ireland must go on the political radar following a recent debacle over an extension to the Rotunda Hospital.<\/p>\n
Planning permission for a 100 million euro four-storey extension to the maternity hospital was overturned<\/a> following objections about preserving the architectural heritage of the area.<\/p>\n Opposition parties blamed a lack of clarity over future plans. A new planning application is to be submitted after the government dropped the existing co-location policy of moving the Rotunda Hospital to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.<\/p>\n Speaking at a demonstration at the hospital on International Women\u2019s Day, Labour leader Marie Sherlock described a \u201cdire need\u201d for the new critical care wing at the Rotunda.<\/p>\n Labour TD Marie Sherlock speaking at an International Women’s Day rally organised by the Labour Party at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin City Centre, supporting the Rotunda Hospital, and maternity healthcare(Image: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n She also said it had been 20 years since there had been any serious investment in maternity facilities in Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s (Rotunda extension) been talked about for many years, there was a report six years ago which said the high dependency unit had the worst facilities in the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about demanding that maternity facilities in this country get the respect that they deserve, and any woman who has ever walked through the door of a maternity hospital knows just how vulnerable a time it is in their lives and how much you are in the hands of the staff, and also the facilities.<\/p>\n People take part in an International Women’s Day rally organised by the Labour Party at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin City Centre, supporting the Rotunda Hospital, and maternity healthcare. (Image: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure that the clarion call from today is maternity facilities have to be put on the political radar.<\/p>\n \u201cThe political football that played out over the past few weeks should never have happened but I\u2019m really relieved and glad that we now have an outcome in terms of the government saying that the future location of the Rotunda Hospital is here in the heart of Dublin<\/a>\u2019s north inner city.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Vicky O\u2019Dwyer, a consultant obstetrician and director of gynaecology at the hospital, also addressed the gathering.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great now that we have clarity we are staying here in Parnell Square, but we need to improve our facilities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year we delivered just over 8,600 babies, and that\u2019s 1,500 more than the next busiest maternity hospital in the country, and we\u2019re seeing our booking numbers go up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re delighted that women are choosing to have their babies at the Rotunda, we\u2019re also the busiest women\u2019s health unit in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we need to provide safe high quality care, which we\u2019re doing, but we need better facilities for our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? 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To add Dublin Live as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Planning permission for a 100 million euro four-storey extension to the maternity hospital was overturned following objections about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60,109579],"class_list":["post-342715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rotunda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Labour](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_01KK6W09SPTC32YHM2ZCXBYFZ5.jpg\")
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