Ms Alice Murphy:

If I could be permitted to offer an observation on the €850,000, and I do so because I know it has been a source of valid concern when people hear such a high figure mentioned, the rent in the lease is a nominal rent set at €10 a year. St. Vincent's Healthcare Group is a registered charity and because of that it has a legal obligation to get value for its asset, unless it is applying the asset to another charitable purpose. In plain language, what that means is that one charity can give to another charity something for free, if the other charity is doing something the same as the first, that is, the charitable delivery of healthcare. If the other body, however, decided to commercialise the asset, say by building an apartment block, then St. Vincent's could not allow that other party to build such an apartment block and make a great deal of money from doing so for free. Therefore, St. Vincent's and its advisers were quite right in saying it was a registered charity and that it had to show it was looking after the asset and only giving it for the €10 rent annually if the site is used to run a public maternity hospital. It was necessary to state that if that was not being done anymore, then it would be necessary to increase the rent to €850,000. That is to comply with charity law and, I believe, for no other reason.