Ms Alice Murphy:

I will give a quick answer on the characterisation of St. Vincent's as the only owner-shareholder of the new national maternity hospital company. That company has two shareholders: one is St. Vincent's and the other is the Minister for Health. St. Vincent's has 99 shares and the Minister has one golden share. If I had my time again as a legal drafter, I might have given the Minister 100,000 golden shares. The legal effect would not change, however. There is a perception it is 99 versus one but that is not borne out in the documents. What matters is not the number of shares one holds, but the powers attached to the shares. The ordinary shares have very few powers. I understand that for the layperson ownership means control but I spoke already about conflating ownership with control.