Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I raised with the Taoiseach the ongoing concerns of the Labour Party in respect of the ownership, control and governance of the new national maternity hospital. Since then, I know the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has been engaging with the Committee on Health. Indeed, the parliamentary Labour Party looks forward to engaging with him. However, we have also seen the publication last night of a statement from Professor Deirdre Madden and Dr. Sarah McLoughlin in which they set out their concerns in respect of ownership, control and governance in more detail and point out the difference between freehold and leasehold ownership. The concerns they have set out exactly reflect the concerns the Labour Party has been expressing. They reminded us that in 2018 the Day report, produced by the independent review group commissioned by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, recommended that the State should own the land on which hospitals and schools are built. The question remains as to why this recommendation was not followed then. Why are these Byzantine legal arrangements being favoured over the straightforward and clear-cut arrangement whereby the land would be gifted to the State? Why can it not be in public ownership and freehold?

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