Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We all want a state-of-the-art national maternity hospital as quickly as possible. The reason for this shambles and this delay is that this Government and successive Governments have insisted that private companies controlled by religious orders must remain in the picture, even though every cent going into building this hospital is public money and that what is wanted is a public hospital being paid for with public money. The Government insists, and successive Governments have insisted, that instead we get a private company influenced by a Catholic religious order. That is the constitution of the new St. Vincent's Holdings company which, interestingly, has been signed - the plot thickens - by people representing a company called Porema Limited and another company called Stembridge Limited. Who are they?

We have the holding company, the Religious Sisters of Charity, the healthcare group, the designated activity company, DAC, and now Porema Limited and Stembridge Limited, which are allegedly associated with thousands of offshore companies. We are in this mess because the Government insists on involving these people in a public hospital that is charged with providing healthcare for the women of this country, and it is influenced by a religious organisation. The Government says our concerns are baseless. Why did two members of the HSE board dissent to the decision to transfer the Religious Sisters of Charity shareholding to this new body, which was set up with the approval of the Vatican? What does it have to do with women's healthcare in this country or approving the overarching company which will own and control the national maternity hospital, as well as three other hospitals? It is unbelievable.

One of those people is Professor Deirdre Madden, who dissented, reportedly on the basis that she had concerns regarding the legal ownership of the site, the building, and the governance and control of the proposed new maternity hospital. The Taoiseach said he is not a legal expert. Maybe we are not all legal experts but, helpfully, Professor Madden is a legal expert. She is a professor of law at University College Cork. She specialises in health law and medical ethics. She was concerned enough to dissent because of ownership, control and governance questions. She clearly has a basis for those concerns. What is the problem with having a publicly-owned and controlled national maternity hospital? The clue about having continued religious influence is in the name of St. Vincent's Healthcare Group. It should gift this land for the national maternity hospital to the State so that it is fully publicly-owned and controlled.

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