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Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD today described as inexcusable the Taoiseach’s refusal to give a commitment to bring any future agreement about the new National Maternity Hospital before the Dáil in advance of it being signed off.
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“There is grave concern, especially among women, about the fact that it is proposed to transfer ownership of the National Maternity Hospital to a private religious entity. The fear, which is well founded, is that women will be denied access to the full range of healthcare services provided for under the law.”
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD today described as inexcusable the Taoiseach’s refusal to give a commitment to bring any future agreement about the new National Maternity Hospital before the Dáil in advance of it being signed off.
Deputy Shortall made her comments following Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil where she repeatedly called upon the Taoiseach to give a clear undertaking that the new National Maternity Hospital will be taken into public ownership as a condition of public funding.
Deputy Shortall said:
“There is growing public concern about the proposed new National Maternity Hospital. This concern is based on two issues; ownership and ethos. On ownership, people cannot fathom why the State would contemplate gifting a valuable state asset of over €300 million to a private entity.
“But there is also grave concern, especially among women, about the fact that it is proposed to transfer ownership to a private religious entity, St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group. It is wholly inappropriate that this should be the case in this day and age. The fear, which is well founded, is that women will be denied access to the full range of healthcare services provided for under the law.”
Deputy Shortall said the Mulvey Report last year was a brokered deal done behind closed doors between two private institutions, St. Vincent’s and Holles Street, with no reference to the public interest.
“Minister Simon Harris continues to blindly maintain that the Mulvey Report can provide a solution. What now is the status of this report? In light of the overwhelming Repeal vote, surely it is redundant,” she added.
“In May 2017, the Minister for Health asked for a month to get to grips with the crisis he caused when he supported a plan to hand over the hospital to a religious entity. He has now had 17 months and he hasn’t managed to square this circle.
“Today in the Dáil I asked the Taoiseach to undertake to bring any draft agreement between St Vincent’s and Holles Street before the house before it is signed off by government. This is vital if we are to be assured that the new hospital will be owned by the public and governed by a new secular charter fit for the 21st century. It is downright inexcusable that the Taoiseach refused to give this undertaking.”
ENDS
23rd October 2018
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