Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with the Deputy and I appreciate her acknowledging that this is a deep-seated mistrust that goes back for generations and it is understandable that this mistrust is there. I will make a few quick points as follows. First, a view has been expressed that we could just own the land and the building and that it could be a HSE hospital. We could take the current national maternity hospital out of it and it could be a HSE-run hospital. There are 19 maternity hospitals or units in the country and at the start of the year, ten of them provided services. By the end of the year 14 of them will provide services, so we are all moving in this direction. There are 11 maternity hospitals providing services right now and the eight that do not provide services are HSE hospitals. We own the land and the buildings in those hospitals and there are no voluntary structures there whatsoever. The hospitals that have led post repeal are the voluntary hospitals and the people sitting with us today. The idea that has been put forward that if they were just HSE hospitals then that would solve the problem is clearly not correct because the eight maternity hospitals that do not provide services are HSE hospitals.

Second, the ownership of the land is not linked to the appointment of directors. The land under the National Maternity Hospital, Holles St., is owned by the Earl of Pembroke, whoever that is, and he has no influence. If the Deputy owned the land and we were getting a leasehold ownership for 300 years from her then she would not be appointing any directors. The directors are being appointed because this is a partnership. The national maternity hospital, which does not own the land under St. Vincent's University Hospital, is appointing directors to that board as well. I might ask the clinicians about this. Could Ms Brosnan come in on this point?