Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We learned last night that the Government has paused approval of the legal arrangements for the new national maternity hospital for two weeks. I welcome that pause. We need to hear the details of the scrutiny that is going to be allowed for in the Dáil and Seanad. We also need to understand that the concerns that will be articulated during that period will be taken into account. In the Ireland of 2022, it is simply unthinkable that a new hospital funded with almost €1 billion of taxpayers' money would involve anything other than full State control.

I looked at the draft constitution and articles of association for the hospital this morning. I am more alarmed than I had been previously with regard to what I understood to be the legal arrangements for the hospital. Despite the best efforts of some, it is not a simple relocation of the hospital from Holles Street to Elm Park. It is not the case that the St. Vincent's Healthcare Group, SVHG, has a seat on the board of directors just to look after the plot of land on which the hospital will be situated. It is something much bigger than that. The Minister and SVHG will be the only two members of the new hospital. The SVHG will have 99 shares and the Minister will have one golden share which, to be honest, is framed ambiguously. It is the case that the SVHG will have the power to appoint the chair of the board when the chair rotates once every six years.

The question has to be asked as to why the State is allowing any involvement of a private entity in what was to be a public hospital. We in the Labour Party and other parties have talked about the need for this to be a public hospital on publicly owned land. If we accept for a moment the 299-year lease, I do not know of any other commercial situation in which the owners of a site have such major involvement in the governance and operation of a building. It is simply untenable that the State would put that amount of money into a site and not own the land. There is enough money owed by the Religious Sisters of Charity to the State, through the residential redress scheme following the Ryan report of 2002 to 2009, to ensure the land should be handed over by the SVHG to the State. Money should not be passed over.