Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed the Cabinet agreed earlier today to sign off on the national maternity hospital going ahead on non-publicly owned land. The question as to why the land could not be gifted to the State has never been answered. We have been told the 299-year lease at nominal rent is ownership in everything but name but why can it not just be signed off and given at a nominal fee in order that ownership can be made without question? The State will build a state-of-the-art hospital at a cost of €800 million and upwards. As that is a major investment of taxpayers' and people's money, they have the right to an assurance that the land in which the money will be invested will remain in public ownership. The fact the hospital will be built on land not in State ownership is very worrying.

The leaders of the three Government parties have all stated in recent times they believe the land should be publicly owned. The Taoiseach said in March last year, "I am of the view that hospitals which are predominantly or overwhelmingly funded by the State should be in State ownership". In 2019, the Tánaiste stated in the Chamber, "It is our policy that the hospital will be publicly owned and that the land it is on will be in public control." The leader of the Green Party stated in the Dáil in 2017 that the new national maternity hospital, "should involve not [just] the creation of a lease arrangement but rather the transfer of ownership of the site to the State so that there is no uncertainty or lack of clarity on the ownership". No wonder constituents accuse politicians of promising one thing and delivering something else.

One of the key recommendations of the Day report of 2018 was that when the State is paying for a hospital, it should own the hospital outright as this avoids complicated governance arrangements, any chance of limited services and guards the State's investment. We need a clean transaction whereby the Sisters of Charity gift the land directly to the State. It is as simple as that. This would copper-fasten the State ownership of the hospital and allay public fears. This makes infinitely more sense in protecting women's healthcare and the State's investment than a bizarre 299-year lease agreement. For too long in this country, women's healthcare, particularly reproductive healthcare, has been neglected. We all agree this hospital is needed urgently. It has been discussed and considered for almost a decade, yet this Government has still failed to get it right and women deserve better.

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