John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will skip the preliminaries. I have other questions. I raise the point about the protection against merging with another healthcare group. The Bon Secours model was mentioned. Do the witnesses have any comment on that? In other words, the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group could merge with another foreign or domestic healthcare group. That would strand the NMH to some degree or would make it part of a property portfolio.

My second question is about how the geographical location would not meet future population demands. In other words, the hospital will be out in Donnybrook while the population is growing and birth rates are in different parts of the country.

The appointment of conservative directors by conservative Ministers essentially is dictating and influencing the future direction of the hospital.

There is also the issue of the seepage of patients from an overcrowded accident and emergency department in St. Vincent’s University Hospital requiring bed space in the NMH.