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

-----and it could, let us be honest about it, undermine the prospect of ever getting the hospital built. That has to be weighed up. We do not rule anything out here but that has to be weighed up. The announcement on this was made in 2013. The Mulvey mediation took place in 2016. Planning permission has been granted for this. The enabling works on the car park and the pharmacy have been completed. That is where we are right now in respect of this.

That said, there needs to be a long, ongoing, sustained relationship between St. Vincent's Healthcare Group and the Government if the optimal care is to be provided on that site, at both the tertiary hospital and the new maternity hospital. It cannot be the approach taken yesterday. The investment the State will make in this hospital will be very significant in terms of the hundreds of millions of euro that could be spent and the need for that investment and the public interest to be protected. I am satisfied that all legally available services will be provided at the hospital, but there are issues, as I said, in respect of governance and the ownership that remain to be resolved.

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