National Maternity Hospital 'will be free from religious influence', Dáil told

Minister Eamon Ryan insisted the hospital will be "fully independent". 

The new National Maternity Hospital will be free from religious influence and will be "100% in public ownership", the Dáil has been told.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, taking Leaders' Questions, said there are no doubts that the hospital would be free to provide abortion services.

Solidarity TD Mick Barry had raised the issue, saying that on the third anniversary of the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment, there could be no lack of clarity on whether the hospital, to be built at St Vincent's in Dublin, would provide abortion services.

Mr Barry said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had failed to say that the hospital will be "100% owned by the State". 

He said the Green Party must be willing to break with the coalition if the hospital is not independently run.

However, Mr Ryan insisted the hospital will be "fully independent". 

The issue "does not divide government" and all party leaders are committed to the project, he added.

"I see no divide or division in government on this issue."

Housing crisis

Earlier, Mr Ryan was asked about the housing crisis by Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin, who said it was inappropriate that Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI) — set up by the government to fund the delivery of new homes — had funded housing developments by investment firms.

Mr Ó Broin said that HBFI had given €264 million to projects backed by private investors.

"Home Building Finance Ireland was set up by Government to fund medium-sized builders to build and deliver mid-priced homes," he said.

"The Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, is the main shareholder and yet for the past 12 months, and with the full knowledge of the Department of Finance, it has given €264 million of taxpayers' money to big developers to build almost 1,000 homes. 

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"Home Building Finance Ireland and the Department of Finance knew that all of these homes would then be sold to big institutional investors, who would then charge extortionate rents."

In response, Mr Ryan said the Government was committed to ending the housing crisis.

"We now have to apply the same cross-governmental approach we did to Covid to housing because it is the real crisis of our time, particularly for young people. The Government is committed to doing everything we can to meet this crisis.

"More than anything else, we need to do this so our younger people have a chance to set up home in a viable way."