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TÁNAISTE LEO VARADKAR has told Dáil the government has not given examination to alternative sites for the National Maternity Hospital.
The government had decided on co-location of hospitals stating that the “obvious fit and best fit for Holles Street was St Vincent’s”.
He said the government wants to own the hospital, and “ideally the land”.
The hospital is planned for the Elm Park site, and the government hasn’t given examination to alternative sites, he said.
The debate over the hospital have been back in the news in recent weeks, with the St Vincent’s Hospital Group, saying in a statement this week that it should retain ownership of the site on which the new National Maternity Hospital is to be built.
The healthcare group also operates St. Vincent’s Private Hospital on an adjoining site and says that retaining ownership of the NMH site would allow “the delivery of integrated patient care”.
The new hospital has been in the works for years, with the location of the hospital being confirmed at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin 4 in late 2016.
That site’s ownership by religious order the Sisters of Charity prompted various debates in previous years about whether Catholic doctrine could influence medical practices.
Varadkar told the Dáil today that in 2017 and 2018, “two memos were brought” to government on the National Maternity Hospital, but no memo for a decision on governance or on the 100 lease has yet been brought or signed off on yet.
Dr Peter Boylan said yesterday that he had spoken to former Health Minister Simon Harris last week about an alternative to the site, stating that he was told the government is considering a Plan B on the site in Tallaght.
A spokesperson for Harris said the conversation was private, but confirmed the government’s view that the State should own the land and Harris discussed other land the State-owned in the city.
Writing for The Journal, Dr Boylan said: “I think this is the most viable solution at this stage. A massive amount of work by my colleagues in Holles St has gone into designing a superb new hospital. There would need to be only minimal change in design were it to move to Tallaght which has all the requisite specialist services, is well served by public transport, and is close to the M50.”
“The time has come to admit the impossibility of an independent state-owned maternity hospital being built at Elm Park and move to plan B.”
Yesterday, Labour’s Alan Kelly said the government should move to nationalise the entire St Vincent’s Hospital campus if the SVHG does not roll back on its position. He said the statement from the group was “insulting” and he said the government needed to stand up to “bullies”.
He said the statement was “two fingers” to the government and the Irish people.
The Taoiseach said the government “won’t rule anything out” – but added that issuing a CPO for the land, or the entire complex, could run the risk of collapsing the entire project.
Micheál Martin said the group’s statement yesterday was “not an appropriate response at all”.
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Why the obsession with building it in Dublin ? Plenty of cheap greenfield sites in the Midlands, where designated infrastructure could be put in place without the hassle of digging up part of the capital. If its truly a “national” maternity hospital, the Midlands would make it an equal distance for the whole counter. It also would put an end to navigating the M50 and Dublin traffic with an unwell person in the car.
@Bala mc blaha: all roads (and trains) lead to Dublin. I’m guessing it would cost a fortune to put the travel network infrastructure in place and Dublin, as a population centre, would have far more demand for these services than any other area in the country. Why would you move the services away from the demand hotspot?
@Bala mc blaha: I agree with you. This Government is transfixed with building in Dublin. There is plenty of places outside Dublin that are more suitable. Now it seems there will be a legal battle with a CPO on this site.
@Bala mc blaha: As a Dubliner, I agree with that. Ease of access for patients and visitors should be a priority. Often visitors can only find affordable accommodation in the next county, then there’s heavy traffic to contend with. I’m sure the regular staff would have a better quality of life living outside Dublin than having to commute into the city centre daily.
@Bala mc blaha: so much is built in south county dublin.
What about decentralisation.
@GrumpyAulFella: ask the people of Donegal about trains and roads 5 hour drive In some cases, no train, can you imagine the Indignation if the peeps from Dublin were asked to travel that distance for any thing.
@Bala mc blaha: should be beside the Children’s Hospital in Tallaght….plenty of sites here and at heart of M50 / Roads North and South / Luas Hub etc.
Just build it at Tallaght Hospital.
By the way public hospitals should not be used for private healthcare.
@Tracy Dunbar Evans: private patients are subsidising public patient.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: There are a considerable amount of articles taking the opposite view – that public hospitals subsidise private health care. Questioning whether the State should continue to do it.
Perhaps it is time for a Compulsory Purchase Order to be made and the institution can then use the funds to pay compensation to the victims of the institution, that keeps saying that it is broke and cannot pay the victims of abuse over the years.
Blanchardstown hospital would be perfect. Off m50 access to main hospital and national childrens hospital annex.
More rid.iculous decision-making! With all this talk of co-locating hospitals, I would bet everything that I own and will ever own that it would have been cheaper to build an entirely new hospital complex – comprising a maternity hospital, a children’s hospital, a general hospital as well as half a dozen other types of hospitals – on one brand new site off the M50 – than it will end up costing us to build any one of these on existing sites like St James’ or St Vincent’s.
There’s nothing worse than “stu.pid” thinking it’s “smart”. Except for brown-envelope corruption, of course.
(TheJournal: having to alter words like “stu.pid” and “rid.iculous” to get through the toxic e-censor makes you look like a branch of RTE)
Enough of this nonsense. Build it somewhere else. Preferably where it can be accessed easily by the greater public ,not just a south dublin constituency you want to won in the next election.
They can’t consider anything alternative because that can’t be seen to be thinking OUTSIDE the box.
The old Phoenix park race course would have been a perfect site six buses go by it then you have a train station Navan road park way and the m50 is five mins away there building houses there now ?
Glad he wants to “ideally the land”
Sure who doesn’t ;)
The old Phoenix park race corse would have been perfect six buses go by then you have Navan road park way train station and the m50 is five minutes away a load of houses been built there now
have your say