Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, to the House on International Women's Day. Later today, the Seanad will honour nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell who served much of her life in the national maternity hospital. It is perhaps fitting that I now ask the Minister of State and the Minister for Health to review plans for the national maternity hospital, take steps to ensure the hospital has full public ownership and accountability, and ensure the land it is built on is owned by the State and not subject to a limited period lease, which could compromise the provision of maternity and reproductive healthcare for future generations.

This State has a sad history of failing women when it comes to maternal and reproductive health, from symphysiotomy to CervicalCheck, and transferring power to religious charities when it comes to pregnant women.We were painfully reminded of the consequences of that abdication of responsibility by the recent appalling report on mother and baby homes.

This power has been tightly held. When Dr. Noël Browne attempted to introduce the mother and child scheme, it was blocked by religious pressure. Just last year, the State was in the unacceptable position of waiting to hear if the Vatican would give permission to the Sisters of Charity regarding a proposed site for a new national maternity hospital. When that permission came, it had conditions. Despite headlines about gifting the land to the people of Ireland, it emerged that it had not been given to the State, but transferred to a trust, St. Vincent's Holdings, from which the State would lease the land for a period of just 99 years. Dr. Peter Boylan has spoken about how the board of the national maternity hospital has been told that the deal is complex and not a regular deal, the documents will not be regular and there will be a plethora of different structures and ownerships. Religious orders have become proficient in the shifting of assets and accountability through complex company structures, but this does not mean that they lose sight of long-term ownership and control. The new charitable trust's constitution, lodged with the Companies Registration Office last August, is similar to the constitution of the St. Vincent's Healthcare Group. Clause 5.11 specifies that the directors may hold, sell, manage, lease or mortgage any or all of the parts of the company's property. This is a major hostage to fortune.

Why would any trust, charitable or not, have control of any kind over our national maternity hospital? Why is this trust allowed to lease the land to the State instead of selling or giving it? Why is the State diluting its responsibilities again? The Sisters of Charity, whose documented role in illegal adoptions has been a subject of recent public outrage, last week called for an investigation into that matter dating back to 1922. If they can ask us to investigate mistakes made 99 years ago, I will ask the Minister of State to look forward 99 years, which is the proposed length of the lease. That is not very long. We are talking about our children's children's children. We will spend millions of euro on a hospital, then the lease will expire and maternal and reproductive healthcare will suddenly be up for negotiation again. We are in a different Ireland. It is even different than it was for the 2016 Mulvey report. The people of our country have broken their silence and taken back control of women's reproductive rights. The State has had to apologise time and again for how it failed women in the past. Let it learn from that and not make bad compromises that will fail the women of the future.

At a time when EU fiscal rules are suspended and 0% loans are available, there is no financial justification for giving our national maternity hospital to a charitable trust. I call on the Minister of State to deliver something better. Commit to a review of the plans and take steps, including a compulsory purchase order if necessary, to ensure full public control, public accountability and public ownership of our national maternity hospital.