Still no deal on who will own National Maternity Hospital

A deal has not been reached on who will build, own and run the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) despite planners giving it the go-ahead this week.

The estimated €300m project, which would see Holles St Hospital relocate to the St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) campus in South Dublin, was almost derailed in May amid fears it would be “run by nuns” who would insist on a Catholic ethos.

The Religious Sisters of Charity owned the land at SVUH and were shareholders in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG), which the Department of Health said would be “sole owner” of the hospital”. However, the nuns’ decision to end their involvement in SVHG and to transfer ownership of the group to a new company in which the Sisters would have no involvement seemed to set the project back on track.

Three months later, it has emerged agreement has yet to be reached on ownership of the hospital.

The two Sisters of Charity representatives on the SVHG board resigned in June but it is unclear if their shares in SVHG had been transferred to the new company, to be known as St Vincent’s.

Health Minister Simon Harris conceded yesterday that further work is needed to finalise the details of the legal agreement despite “intensive and very constructive engagement between the Department of Health and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group [SVHG] over recent months”.

He said the department was “finalising an agreement with St Vincent’s and Holles Street, under which it is envisaged that the new hospital building would remain in State ownership”.

“Under the proposed agreement the State would construct and retain ownership of the building. The National Maternity Hospital would operate the hospital and have the use of the building for this purpose. Very good progress has been made to date on this agreement, but some further work is needed to finalise the details of the legal agreement.”

A joint statement from the chair and Master of the NMH, Nicholas Kearns and Dr Rhona Mahony, said they were looking forward “to ongoing co-operation with St Vincent’s Hospital Group to ensure this vital project proceeds to completion as soon as possible”

They said it has taken “a huge amount of hard work by very many people to bring the project this far”. The project was first mooted in 1998.

The planning board’s inspector’s report grants permission with 12 conditions, and notes that concerns were raised during the planning process in relation to who owned the land at Elm Park.

Issues raised by observers included whether the HSE had the authority to apply for planning permission, as the legal owners of the site (the Sisters) were “not listed as a party to the application”.

Observers felt the isssue of title “appears to be a fundamental pre-requisite to any planning application”.

Matters regarding ethos and governance were also addressed. However, the inspector, Úna Crosse said neither matters of ownership nor ethos and governance of the facility came “within the board’s remit in respect of assessing and determining this application”.

The new 244-bed hospital is expected to take four years and eight months with up to 600 construction jobs generated. It will cater for 10,000 births annually.