Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

This is a test case. Religious orders are selling up not just in Bessborough but in other locations across the country, selling lands and buildings, which is having a detrimental impact on State funded services. We have another example if this at St. Vincent's Convent on the north side of Cork. Therefore, this is a litmus test for the Government. Will it stand up for the interests of our people or will it bend the knee once more to the religious orders? If the nuns sell that land and force the services there to relocate, that would have a big detrimental effect. That centre is more than the sum of its parts. One cannot break up a hospital and distribute bits of it here, there and everywhere and still have the same effect. It is the same with a one-stop-shop family centre such as this.

Nationalisation is not something that is unknown. It was done with the banks when the Government decided to bail them out and put their debts onto the backs of the taxpayers. There would be widespread support among ordinary people for the seizure of those lands without compensation, guaranteeing jobs, guaranteeing the services and opening up a real discussion with the survivors groups.

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