Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Monday, 16 May 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
New National Maternity Hospital: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. James Menton:
The point I would like to clarify is that the real reason - the only reason - we are offering a lease ownership of this land upon which the State will finance the construction and own, effectively, for 299 years at an annual rent of €10 per annum is that this offers protection to both ourselves and Holles Street in what that building will be used for. That is clearly set out in the lease. The protections afforded under a lease ownership arrangement, as opposed to a freehold ownership arrangement, are radically different. We or Holles Street would have no protections in the absence of the current arrangements as to what that hospital would be used for. The whole purpose of this relocation is that the building would house vastly improved maternity care integrated into a university hospital with access to many specialties and other consultants. That is the whole point from our perspective of this partnership.
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