Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

When precisely did the Tánaiste become seriously concerned about the proposed new national maternity hospital deal? Last week, the Tánaiste told this House that there were fundamental problems with two aspects of the deal, namely, ownership and governance. Given that I have been telling the Tánaiste exactly that for the past four years, I am quite curious as to when he finally saw the light. His comments in the House last week were surprising in several respects. First, it had been pointed out to him for years by myself and others that this deal is manifestly bad for the public. Yet the Tánaiste blithely ignored all those warnings. Whenever I have raised concerns about ownership, governance and ethos, I have been fobbed off with assurances that a legal framework was all that was outstanding. Work started on that legal framework in 2017. Four years later, however, there is still no sign of it.

There is a second reason the Tánaiste's comments were unexpected. He complained bitterly about the proposed 99-year lease, saying it was not satisfactory and that we should own the site. It was his Government, however, that proposed a lease in the first place. Back in 2017, officials in the Department of Health had to twist the arms of the members of the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group to get them to even consider a lease. That is all laid out in the correspondence released by St Vincent’s Healthcare Group this week. In July 2019, however, the Tánaiste referred to the proposed lease himself in this House. He said that St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group had agreed in principle to provide the State with a 99-year lease of the land upon which the new maternity hospital will be built. The Tánaiste framed it as a win for the State that St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group had agreed to provide a lease. The St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group has been criticised for the curt letter it released this week, and certainly much of it does not stand up to scrutiny. However, I can only imagine the shock and amazement of the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group at the latest comments from the Tánaiste.

This mess has the fingerprints of the Tánaiste's party’s fingerpri all over it. The former Deputy and Minister for Health, James Reilly, announced the project in 2013, the next Minister in the Department of Health was the now Tánaiste and he was followed as Minister by Deputy Simon Harris. Finally, last year, the current Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, was given what can only be described as the poisoned chalice. I am curious, therefore, given the longevity of this crisis, about what prompted the Tánaiste to get to his feet in this House last week and express serious concern. Was there something significant about the timing? This is an issue that voters in Dublin Bay South care deeply about, and perhaps their concern has been a catalyst for some long overdue action. In light of yesterday’s debate, what steps does the Tánaiste's Government now intend to take to ensure the new publicly-funded national maternity hospital is constructed on land owned by the State? Will it now be guaranteed that the new facility will be fully owned and governed by the State?

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