Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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787. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the discussions regarding the governance and ownership of the new national maternity hospital; if he has received the text of the agreement that was agreed in principal in December 2018 according to media reports (details supplied); if he will publish the details of this agreement without further delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1597/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Considerable work has been undertaken to develop a legal framework to protect the State’s significant investment in the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) relocation project, which involves the development of a new maternity hospital on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital at Elm Park. My Department has been engaging with both NMH and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group in relation to this legal framework.

There has been some notable progress on the project over recent weeks. St Vincent’s Healthcare Group has agreed in principle to provide the State with a 99-year lease of the land upon which the new maternity hospital will be built, and this will allow the State to retain ownership of the new facility. St Vincent’s Healthcare Group has also confirmed the process by which the Religious Sisters of Charity will withdraw from the Group and transfer their shareholding to a new company St Vincent’s Holdings CLG. The Sisters have, of course, already resigned from the Group’s Board.

Given the level of State investment, I have sought, and received, the agreement of both the National Maternity Hospital and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group that the Board of the new NMH DAC will be competency-based and will include a Public Interest representative.

The overall framework being put in place will, unequivocally, copper-fasten the principle that patient care in the new hospital will be delivered without religious, ethnic or other distinction, and that any relevant medical procedure, which is in accordance with the laws of the land, will be carried out at the new hospital. Work to finalise the suite of legal documents is ongoing with the NMH and SVHG and is expected to be completed early this year.