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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has urged those raising concerns about the new National Maternity Hospital to listen to the hospital clinicians who are in favour of the building going ahead on the St Vincent’s Hospital site.
The relocation to a site on the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin has proved highly controversial as, until recently, the site was owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity.
The religious congregation has now transferred its ownership and if the relocation plan goes ahead the State would lease the land for 299 years.
Last week, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) completed the legal transfer of the Sisters of Charity’s shareholding in the group to a new company, St Vincent’s Holdings CLG, paving the way for the maternity hospital to be built on the St Vincent’s site.
But Cabinet has stalled the proposal to allow for documents about ownership and governance arrangements to be published, and to allow Minister Donnelly to appear before the Oireachtas Health Committee tomorrow to address lingering concerns.
Land ownership
Speaking in the Dáil today, Sinn Féín’s Mary Lou McDonald said the ownership of the land is not a “red herring” and hit out against the Taoiseach for what she was claimed was a dismissal of the concerns raised.
She asked why the original agreement, of the land being transferred into public ownership, did not go ahead.
McDonald urged the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to “get around the table” with St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and convince them to gift the NMH land to the State.
She told the Dáil that the financial power of the land and retaining control of the land so it can be used as leverage for a future financial transactions is the reason it has not been transferred or gifted to the State.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik made similar calls stating that the hospital should always have been built on State land.
People Before Profit’s Bríd Smith told the Taoiseach to stop telling the Opposition that they are playing politics when they are merely raising legitimate concerns.
She said the issue comes down to trust and the majority of the public don’t trust the deal on the table.
Trust
“If you don’t trust me, that’s fine. Maybe you’d like to trust the hospital clinicians,” he said, listing off a number of doctors that work in the current national maternity hospital who have said they are in favour of the project going ahead.
He told Bacik he didn’t understand the logic behind the proposal to go down the compulsory purchase order route, stating it would use up a lot more resources and take years.
It is “dishonest” to suggest that a 300-year lease with a nominal rent of “a tenner a year does not amount to ownership”, the Taoiseach said.
“You know damn well it’s the truth” Martin told McDonald, calling for the debate on the issue to have some “perspective”.
He said it is being conveyed that the Government has some sort of “covert agenda” to create a new hospital that would deny women to legally permissible procedures.
Martin said the Government “can’t dictate” what happens to the land.
“We have to get moving,” the Taoiseach said, stating that the Government only wants to see a state-of-the-art facility built for the care of the women and babies of Ireland.
He said discussions about a new maternity hospital have been underway since 2013, and we have to get on and build the hospital now.
Green Party Minister for the Arts Catherine Martin said the appearance of the minister before the committee tomorrow is the right decision, adding it was a “vigilant step” taken by the Government to press pause on the project.
She said she is hopeful that reassurances will be provided by Donnelly tomorrow, “but I’m not going to preempt what happens”, she said.
Campaigners and opposition political parties have raised a number of concerns about the proposed deal, including the possibility that certain medical procedures such as abortions could not be carried out at the hospital because they are not approved by the Catholic church.
The history of abuse scandals involving religious orders, particularly regarding institutions such as Magdalene Laundries and industrial schools, has led others to say that religious organisations should have no involvement in the provision of women’s healthcare.
The Department of Health has repeatedly stated that all procedures that are currently provided at the National Maternity Hospital under Irish law will be provided in the new NMH if it relocates to the Dublin 4 site.
This includes termination of pregnancy, provision of contraception services including tubal ligation, fertility services and gender reassignment procedures.
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Spot on, our own antivaxxers, antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists are anti Ukraine and will have the same opinion when the warmonger Putin overthrows Moldova,
@Charles Coughlan: your comment is above and beyond dum.
@John Johnes: actually most anti science nutjobs I’ve known, watch RT news every night.
@Donal Desmond: I strongly recommend to watch documentary on Netflix “How become a tyrant” epizode 2 that will give you some idea about SH.
@Charles Coughlan: Geopolitics is not a simplistic team sport, in which you have to pick a side and blindly support them no matter what, while waving their colours to identify yourself to others as a loyal supporter.
The invasion of Ukraine is an illegal act of aggression by Putin and targeting civilians is reprehensible, but its not as simple as starting the clock from the invasion and chanting Russia bad, NATO good, its a lot more complex and long running situation that has brought us to this point, acknowledging the documented reality that nuance and bigger picture exists, is neither supporting Putin, anti Ukraine, or a conspiracy theory.
Accepting or embracing a simplistic reductive black and white narrative from any side of this situation is frankly just intellectual laziness.
@Donal Desmond: Yeah sure you know best . Go back to watching Rossiya Segodnya.
@Donal Desmond: Of course we remember. I wonder do you remember the reaction to that? The protests in nearly every major city in the world, the countries that point blank refused to support it, the embargos on French produce in the US because France wouldn’t roll in with them. Most people condemned it at the time and most still do. In the same way most people condemn this war now. It’s not an either/or situation and your whataboutry is both banal and pointless.
@artur fil: Same as watching our national broadcaster RTE. Certainly do not know best, but our own media is not shy in the propaganda game.
@Francis Devenney: I don’t remembered it exactly like that. People were against the war while we all thought it was a plot to start a war due to the terrorist attack on the twin towers and USA interests. That was until the the lies/mistake on MDW was confirmed and heavenly published by the media. Shortly after the war broke and the protest then become a small minority. With time they become nothing and after the terrorist attack in Madrid on 2004 and then in London in 2005 the protests were all forgotten and anything related to wars in the middle east was accepted by the public without questions, including the “mistake” made in Iraq.
@Francis Devenney: Whatabourty is pointless? A bit like denying the past. Most conflicts that take place relates to what happened in the past..History repeats itself. The invasion of Ukraine was wrong, but the hypocrisy of our politicians and media is comical.
@Donal Desmond: When someone says “this is bad” and someone else says “Yeah, well this other thing is bad too” what is the point of that? It doesn’t contribute at all. It is literally pointless. And as everyone knows the other thing was bad, it is the very definition of banal to make such a statement in the first place
@John Johnes: no it is not , some of them are outside the embassy purporting to be “journalists”
Watching world leaders making daily phone calls to Putin is getting embarrassing at this stage. All it serves to do is boost his ego and feelings of self importance. Like Hitler before him, once he gets what he wants, there will be a new list of contrived grievances and demands. Once again, world leaders will throw their hands up in shock horror at his duplicity.
@Paul Shepherd: What do you think is the appropriate course of action?
@Paul Shepherd: The West especially the U.S. from Vietnam to Afghanistan have learned a lesson that with all their technology wars are not easily won. Not for a second condoning the invasion of Ukraine, but like 1914 the jingoistic propaganda of all sides seem to be heading in that direction. Only difference thus time is the finger on the button. Talking is better than the alternative.
@Donal Desmond: not much point in talking to a deaf person?
@Paul Shepherd: Suppose when I replied to your comment, didn’t realise I was corresponding with the blinkered..A serious comment from you would be appreciated. Like Joe Duffy you seem to be at a loss when faced with a different viewpoint.
Like the picture. Pinnochio himself
It’s very easy to see it online now. Loads of utterly ridiculous theories and “genuine” “analysis” and understanding of the issue. And while reading through comments on FB pages of Reuters, Euronews and a few others, one can see how they try to divide us on a simple matter of unjustified military invasion and aggression on Ukraine.
How can a country with a population of 146 million people, most of whom don’t have a clue what’s going on, hold the rest of the world to ransom. The rest of the world should be ashamed allowing this to happen. So what if Putin presses the nuclear button he won’t see the next sunrise if he does and by all accounts the world is fkd anyway according to David Attenborough. So stand up for what is right, it’s time to get rid of the worlds dictators and their apologists.
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