Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said he is “confident” issues around the new National Maternity Hospital can be resolved.
The planned relocation of the facility from Dublin’s Holles Street to a site at Elm Park alongside St Vincent’s Hospital has been mired in controversy over governance and ownership.
It is expected to cost the State up to €800 million, but the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group has insisted it must retain ownership of the site and has offered a 99-year lease, with a 50-year extension.
The Government would prefer to own it outright and Mr Varadkar said engagement is continuing between SVHG and the Department of Health.
Speaking yesterday, he said he was satisfied the State “will own the hospital, we will own the building”.
He added: “There are still two outstanding issues around the
ownership and the lease arrangement, around the site on which the hospital has been built and also the governance piece, the representation on the board.
“But I’m confident that these can be resolved.
“It does require an engagement and that engagement is ongoing, involving the National Maternity Hospital, involving St Vincent’s, involving
the HSE and the Department of Health.”
The Elm Park site is owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity order.
The order had said it intends to gift the 29 acres of land to the Irish people, with ownership transferred to a new independent charity, St Vincent’s Holdings.
Critics have questioned the independence of the new charity and raised concern whether the hospital will operate under a Catholic ethos and what that will mean for abortion services.
In a letter to the Irish Times on Monday, a group of 42 senior clinicians at the National Maternity Hospital, including current master Shane Higgins and three former masters, hit out at “misinformation” over the provision of services at the planned facility.
It said: “We, the consultants of the National Maternity Hospital, are concerned by the potential for misinformation and misunderstanding to delay a vital project to create a world-class maternity hospital for the women and babies of Ireland.
“The misinformation that services at the new maternity hospital will be curtailed by any religious ethos is particularly troubling given its inaccuracy.”
Mr Varadkar backed that view when asked about the letter yesterday.
He said: “I don’t have any concern about any procedure that’s lawful in the State being performed in the new National Maternity Hospital.”
