Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Shortall raised the question of whether that should be changed in the case of this particular hospital. There are complicated issues involved in that but, as the Deputy said, the health care report addresses this issue of the model we want to adopt going forward. The Deputy used the phrase "to disentangle". In terms of disentangling this issue, there are complex funding decisions to be taken into account. There is also the matter of service delivery. So many services are delivered in this country by voluntary hospitals. There is a lot of support for voluntary hospitals. The debate certainly began on the system that was being suggested for St. Vincent's. We have come to a very clear outcome on that, and a very important outcome. It is absolutely the right outcome. In terms of the broader issue of the combination of public hospitals and voluntary hospitals that we are going to have in this country going forward, I believe there is a political discussion to be had on that. There are many different elements to it.

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