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

Ar dtús, táim den tuairim go mbeidh an t-ospidéal seo neamhspleách ar an eaglais. Táim den tuairim sin ón méid atá léirithe sna conarthaí go dtí seo agus ón méid a pléadh idir an HSE agus na boird éagsúla. Ní bheidh aon tionchar ag an eaglais ar an ospidéal seo. I am strongly of the view that there will be no religious ethos influence on this hospital. That will not be the case, but the Deputy raised an interesting point about ownership. I will not get into the historic view which she, very simplistically, linked a single party to how the State evolved, and so on. We can argue that point on another day. I note people like Paddy Hillery, for example, who developed the first major State education at second level, and comprehensive and community level, and Seán Moylan who, years earlier, developed the vocational education committee. Indeed, there were the free education initiatives of Donogh O'Malley. People evolve and one cannot telescope the views of today back to earlier decades. I have a very open view on history but I do not ideologically affix my perspectives on history. I do not intend to do so now, but I take the point that ownership is important and there should be no remortgaging of this site in the future by the hospital group. The Government is not satisfied that this should be the case at all. It is clear and united on that issue.

I reiterate the point I made to Deputy Kelly that, as the church exits institutions of this kind, what replaces it should concern us more in terms of governance and who trustees or various companies will represent. That is a more fundamental point going into the future, given the scale and nature of State investment in the facility. I am very much of the view that if the State is building something, the State should own it. This has a history because of the fact that two voluntary hospitals have come together. The public interest demands that there be co-location; let us be clear about that. It demands that. I sometimes ask why it takes so long to build hospitals in this country. We had the same issue with Tallaght many years earlier, with protracted negotiations. I was involved in getting the maternity and neonatal unit built in Cork University Hospital. Thankfully, two State hospitals were merging, and the private hospital agreed to cease operations to facilitate the establishment of one major maternity hospital for that region with a state-of-the-art neonatal facility. It has taken much longer to get this facility in Dublin up and running.

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