Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street is overcrowded. We need a new hospital built to modern specifications. Let us get on with it and stop blaming the nuns for everything. The nuns are easy targets for populist left politicians to attack because they know the nuns do not have expensive public relations teams and are not in the business of doing media. It is important to point out the Religious Sisters of Charity are giving away land worth more than €50 million for free to build a hospital. They will have absolutely no say in the running of the hospital - in a way an objective that would be cause for positivity. In this case, however, the nuns have been under sustained attack simply because they are Catholic. They have been lambasted and targeted by critics who are more concerned with gaining lines in a newspaper or time on the airwaves than anything else. Why does the health committee have to delay the process even longer? After all, the St. Vincent's Healthcare Group does not want to sell this land but will give it to the HSE under a 299-year lease. This deal will take the new hospital into the 24th century before ownership would become an issue. Even then, it is unlikely any court would say the hospital should be removed. Who will own the hospital buildings? The HSE will. After 299 years of the leasehold, the hospital ownership will revert to St. Vincent's hospital. There is nothing to indicate that even then the nuns, if the order is still around, would have any say in its running. Is this argument common? Yes, absolutely. In fact, 99% of Irish apartments are purchased under a long lease agreement and ownership is not disputed. It is a very standard contract that has become, for whatever reason, a major political debate. Will the State, however, manage to control the cost of the building of this new hospital, given the massive overrun cost overrun of the new children's hospital at St. James's Hospital? The State will be seeking much tighter oversight this time around but the Government has a dismal track record when it comes to such projects. All indications point to this becoming another runaway costs project.

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