Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The petition for liquidation of Mount Carmel Hospital was ex parte. It was one-sided and it was by NAMA. There were two statements which resulted in the decision. One was that it was hopelessly insolvent while there other was that the 2013 results showed a disastrous trading year. However, this is not true because from October 2013 onwards, there had been a big turnaround as a result of increasing bed occupancy with the HSE relieving the problem by bringing in patients on the waiting lists. Some 2,300 patients were going to be decanted gradually into Mount Carmel Hospital for hospitalisation and after-care treatment.

There were two bids for the hospital to NAMA. One of them collapsed while the other one was for €14 million, €10 million of which would go to the creditors, including the Revenue Commissioners which had agreed to take its portion of that €10 million, and €4 million of which would go to NAMA. However, NAMA did not want the €4 million but wanted €6 million. For €2 million, the following is now the prospect. The VAT and PAYE for 328 employees amounts to approximately €7 million per year while jobseeker's benefit paid to the same number of staff would be €4 million per year, which is a total of €11 million per year. The redundancy payment from the Social Insurance Fund would be €8 million but that is a once-off payment. Contrast the €2 million extra NAMA sought with the €19 million lost to the public purse in year one, with €11 million per year thereafter. This begs the question as to what in God's name NAMA is doing.

There are 130 beds in Mount Carmel Hospital. Some 25 beds are for maternity, with 12 for mothers and 13 for babies, while there are 105 non-maternity beds. The figures do not stack up. The staff costs for the hospital are between 70% and 80% of turnover, which was €29 million. That means that 10% savings in one year would have been €2.3 million, which would have more than counterbalanced the €1 million lost in the last trading year.

It is a bad mistake to close this hospital.

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