Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank the Deputy very much. I agree with a great deal of what she has just said. Let me be very clear: no one is dismissing the concerns being raised around clinical and operational independence. I, the Deputy and all of the members of the joint committee understand that and we are taking it very seriously.

On the second point raised by the Deputy around a Catholic or religious organisation having an involvement, these issues have been raised at the joint committee and in the media, and on the back of those I took another look, and asked the Department to do likewise, to be absolutely sure there would be no influence, be it Catholic or otherwise, other than a secular influence through the laws of the land and being governed by good clinical practice. I will not be bringing any recommendation to the Oireachtas or to the Government unless that is absolutely guaranteed.

We went back, for example, and looked at the charter for St Vincent’s Healthcare Group because it had been alleged the group was carrying on through its charter and mission a specific reference to Catholic ethos. I am glad to inform the Deputy that is not the case. The ethos and core values referred to by the group, and there are a few, are human dignity, compassion, justice, quality and advocacy. It talks about its mission being to advance medical education, promote medical research and patient care in all areas of medicine and to be known for the highest standards of patient care, clinical excellence, medical research, staff education, and so forth. These are things I believe we would all say sound very reasonable. I assure the Deputy that all such concerns are taken very seriously and everything is being done to ensure it is watertight, is free from religious influence and is secular.