Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am confident the State will own the hospital we build. I am also confident we will agree final governance structures that give watertight guarantees in terms of the clinical and operational independence of the hospital. Further, I am confident we will have a long lease and that options can be put into a legal contract as to what happens at the end of the lease, for example. As to the ownership of the land, my understanding is that St. Vincent's Healthcare Group has stated repeatedly for many years that it will not sell the land. I do not believe its position has changed. The position of the Government and of the committee is that our preference is for ownership of the land, but the most important thing is clinical and operational independence.