Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Devine. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Harris.

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this matter. The National Maternity Hospital, NMH, was originally established at Holles Street in 1894. The buildings have aged considerably over the years and, understandably, have accrued significant infrastructural problems which have impacted on the ability of the hospital to deliver clinical services. It is clear that the current hospital needs to be redeveloped.

The national maternity strategy reaffirms a commitment by Government to co-locate the remaining stand-alone maternity hospitals with adult acute services in order to provide mothers with access to a full range of medical and support services. The availability of these services helps to ensure the delivery of an optimum, safe service, particularly for high risk mothers and babies.

Against this background, the Government approved the NMH relocation project, which involves the development of a new maternity hospital on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital at Elm Park. The new hospital will be funded by the State and is included in Project Ireland 2040. This relocation project came to fruition following extensive mediation discussions led by Kieran Mulvey, which resulted in an agreement being reached between the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the NMH on the relocation of the facility to the Elm Park campus. One of the guiding principles of the Mulvey agreement was the requirement for the protection of State investment and interests. It is vitally important that the legal and governance arrangements associated with this very significant State investment are robust.

Considerable work has been undertaken, therefore, to develop a legal framework to protect the State’s significant investment.This legal framework will underpin the operational and clinical independence of the new hospital, ensuring care in the new maternity hospital will be delivered without religious, ethnic or other distinction and any medical procedure which is in accordance with the laws of the land will be carried out there. The proposals will require consideration by Government, the National Maternity Hospital and the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group before they are finalised.

I mentioned at the outset that the model of stand-alone maternity hospitals is not the norm internationally. Government policy is therefore to co-locate all remaining maternity hospitals with adult acute services in order to provide optimal clinical outcomes. In this context, it is proposed to relocate not only the National Maternity Hospital, but also University Maternity Hospital Limerick to University Hospital Limerick, Dooradoyle; the Rotunda Hospital to the Connolly Hospital campus in Blanchardstown; and the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital to St. James’s Hospital.