“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ...” Though we would now correct the sexist language of the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, the idea that we are all born equal is supposed to be foundational to our republic. Except, of course, in Dublin’s (and the world’s) oldest maternity hospital, whose master is making a last stand for the right to be born superior.

I should declare an interest: when it comes to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin I am profoundly biased. Both of my sons were born there within the public health system. It was, at the time, bordering on decrepit and the facilities were primitive. But the staff and the ethic of care were wonderful.

Private maternity care was available and I suppose, at a stretch, we could just about have afforded it. But we trusted the Rotunda. We did not believe we would be treated worse in any way if we did not pony up for a consultant’s fee.

I must therefore also declare my shame at the extraordinary defiance of public policy, and of the basic ethic of equal birth, by the hospital’s master Prof Sean Daly at a hearing of the Oireachtas health committee last week.

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Daly told the committee’s impressive chairman........

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