Dáil debates
Tuesday, 17 May 2022
Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
2:20 pm
Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source
Earlier today the Minister said we will own the building and the land for the next 300 years in the same way that anyone who buys an apartment owns their apartment. This is just patent nonsense. The real value of the new asset centres on the licence. Has the Taoiseach read the licence? The freehold ownership of the hospital site plus the 299-year lease plus the 299-year licence adds up to an extraordinarily valuable asset. The HSE cannot unreasonably withhold its consent to the mortgaging of the land underneath the new building nor can it prevent the sale of the lease nor revoke the licence that effectively shuts out the State from the new building.
That is what is in these legal documents. This gives an extraordinarily valuable asset to St. Vincent's Healthcare Group, which it is free to mortgage or sell. The HSE has essentially been shut out of this. It cannot make what is determined to be unreasonable objections to that.
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