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

The integrity of the campus was an issue going back and the witnesses have spoken about it and covered it. As a political point, in 2017, St. Vincent's Hospital Group was not countenancing any sale or lease of part of the land or any separate ownership of a hospital on-site. That goes to what the current Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has achieved. The HSE actually owns the hospital and the land is being leased at €10 per year for a total of 299 years, with the arguments of many being that this essentially involves ownership.

There is the question as to why this body cannot just gift the land. There was an article in The Currencyrecently that covers much of this. The witnesses might be familiar with it. St. Vincent's hospital, as Deputy Cullinane indicates, offered its land as collateral when it borrowed to redevelop the private hospital in 2010. That came to the attention of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It seems from the article written by Mr. Thomas Hubert in The Currencythat if St. Vincent's Hospital Group gave the land under the new maternity hospital to the State, it would find itself in default of its loans and might become insolvent. Is that correct?