An online petition to block The Sisters of Charity from owning the new national maternity hospital has got thousands of signatures overnight.
18,000 have added their names to the protest, set up after the religious order was revealed as the new owner of the facility due to be built in Dublin.
The Sisters of Charity have so far failed to pay their share of funds to a redress scheme for the victims of institutional abuse.
However the Health Minister has reassured patients they won’t have any religious influence in the hospital.
