Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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3224. To ask the Minister for Health if the State has any security, either legal or equitable, over the property at the Elm Park campus upon which public monies have been expended on enabling works to do with the new maternity hospital; and in the event that the State has at present no such security, the way the State is protecting its investment. [40874/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE ensures that robust legal arrangements are put in place to protect the State’s interests with respect to capital investment on voluntary hospital sites. As the HSE is responsible for the delivery of this public healthcare infrastructure project, they would be in a better position to provide additional information in relation to the specific query raised by the Deputy. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.

As the Deputy will be aware, a draft legal framework has been developed which aims to address the ownership and governance arrangements at the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) on the Elm Park campus. As I have already stated, I will not bring any proposal to Government unless it provides assurances around all legally permissible services being provided in the new NMH as well as ensuring that the State’s investment in the new hospital is safeguarded. As such, these legal arrangements would build upon the existing mechanisms to protect the State’s Interest on the Elm Park campus.