Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. There will be a detailed session in the House on this issue this evening, at which I am sure we will get into greater detail.

I reiterate my position since the start of this process. I will bring proposals on the new national maternity hospital to Government only if there are absolute guarantees of full independence for the national maternity hospital and absolute guarantees that all the services prescribed under law will be available there, as they are in Holles Street right now. There will be no religious influence from Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Taoism - you name it. This hospital will be run according to the law of the land. Under the proposed legal framework, neither the Vatican nor the Religious Sisters of Charity will play any role in the governance of the new hospital or in its operation.

The sisters are transferring their shareholding to the new entity. The public constitution of St. Vincent's Holdings makes no reference to Canon Law. My Department has previously been advised that Canon Law will not impact on anything to do with this new hospital whatsoever.

Regardless of who owns the land on which the new hospital is built, the legal framework is being developed to address both the ownership and, critically, the governance of the hospital. There are several priorities: to ensure that all clinically appropriate and legally permissible services will be available in the new national maternity hospital; to prevent any undue influence, religious or otherwise, on the operation of the new hospital; and to safeguard the State's significant investment in the new hospital.

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