Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said concerns raised over procedures at the new National Maternity Hospital and the land it’s to be built on are no longer “sustainable.”
Both the Taoiseach and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly have said the State will “essentially” own the land at St Vincent’s campus because the State has a lease for 300 years.
And are adamant that women would have access to healthcare services like abortion, gender-affirming surgery and tubal ligation at the new hospital.
Speaking to reporters in Wexford on Thursday, Mr Martin said: “We’re getting this site for 300 years at a tenner a year. That’s the deal.
“We then are funding the construction of the hospital, when I saw we, the State, through the HSE, funds the construction of the new maternity hospital and neonatal unit which is to provide modern, high quality care under licence from the HSE.
“It has to operate under that licence and has to provide all of the services.
“I don’t believe any longer that those concerns are sustainable.
“There is an urgency about us making sure that such modern facilities are provided.
"In the context that all the issues that were raised that [people] had concerns about, which I understand [were] around would all services be provided that are legally permissible and provided for in legislation, the answer is unequivocally yes in terms of the multilayered legal guarantees that have been provided both in the Constitution of the new hospital itself, in the operating licence that the HSE is granting to the new hospital, in the higher number of directors representing the public interest on the Board in terms of the Minister’s Golden Share... there are many, many guarantees there.
“In my view it is very clear that all those services will be provided, there is no doubt about that.”
Speaking in the Dáil, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said it was his understanding that the Sisters of Charity were asked if they wanted to sell the land.
He said: “Their response was that they did not want to sell the land.
“My understanding is that they are no longer in the business of healthcare.
“The St. Vincent's Hospital Group has decided, as is its right, to retain its voluntary hospital status and operate this co-located model.
“The change made by the Government is that rather than the board members of the new hospital coming from St. Vincent's Group and the National Maternity Hospital, there will be three additional public interest members, as well as the Minister as chair.”
Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall said the Taoiseach “failed to mention that the actual rent stipulated in the lease agreement is €850,000 a year.”
She said: “It has been reduced to €10 as long as a list of six conditions are complied with, including that the landlord, St. Vincent's Holdings, retains a controlling stake over the use of the hospital.
“If these conditions are breached, the rent reverts upwards.”
She has called for an explanation as to why this “punitive penalty exists."
Speaking in Wexford, the Taoiseach said there is an “urgency” to build a modern hospital to replace what are unacceptable conditions now in Holles St.
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