Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health must have known about the ownership issue last November. The Taoiseach must have known about it, but he chose not to tell anyone about it. He hoped people would not notice. It was only when it became public in the last two weeks that the Minister pretended that he never knew about it and suggested he would try to rectify it in the next month. I put it to the Taoiseach that there is a moral obligation on everybody, including the St. Vincent's hospital group, to provide and facilitate the provision of the hospital. It has been suggested there have been three mediations. On what are they mediating? It needs to be registered and said the St. Vincent's health care campus would not be in place without the current and capital expenditure input of the State. The women of Ireland need the new maternity hospital. The idea that some people are reluctant partners in facilitating its provision is out of order. There is an obligation to do so. People should have been far more transparent. Why do the Sisters of Charity want to own the hospital? Does anybody know the answer to that question? Do they want to own it for financial or corporate reasons? Is there something else we are not being told? Is the complicated financial set-up on the campus preventing the St. Vincent's hospital group from giving the property over to the State? I think we need answers to that question. Fundamentally, I put it to the Taoiseach that the State should own the hospital and that the State's investment should be reflected in the ownership model. He has not really given me an answer to these assertions. I do not think anybody could have any doubt about these basic principles or any reason to disagree with them, particularly in the modern era when religious orders are in decline. We have heard about lay trusts eventually coming on stream. That is not the right route into the future given the way things are going.

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