Harris is 'committed to' St Vincent's site for maternity hospital 

The Department of Dermatology, the site of New National Maternity Hospital on Sisters of Charity Land at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin. File picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Former Health Minister Simon Harris says that he is committed to the idea of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) on the St Vincent's site.

Mr Harris said that he was "demystifying" a conversation he had with Dr Peter Boylan on a potential move to Tallaght and said that he still believes the move to St Vincent's is the best plan for the new facility.

He said that he had "stood by women" as Health Minister by not pushing ahead with the move until all governance questions had been answered.

Mr Harris said that there would be "full clinical independence" at the new hospital and there would be "satisfaction around clinical delivery, governance and protecting the State's investment".

The planned relocation of the hospital from Dublin’s Holles Street to a site at Elm Park co-located with St Vincent’s Hospital has been mired in controversy linked to governance and ownership issues.

That land is owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity order.

The order has said it intends to gift the 29 acres of land to the Irish people, with ownership being transferred to a new independent charity, St Vincent’s Holdings.

Critics of the arrangements have questioned the independence of that charity and raised concern whether the hospital will operate under a Catholic ethos, with resultant consequences for the provision of abortion and other services including IVF and transgender healthcare services.

Letter by consultants

It comes as consultants of the NMH have said that they are “concerned” by the potential “for misinformation and misunderstanding to delay a vital project to create a world-class maternity hospital for the women and babies of Ireland”.

In a letter in The Irish Times, more than 40 clinicians signed a letter saying that misinformation that services at the new maternity hospital will be curtailed by a religious ethos “is particularly troubling given its inaccuracy”.

The signatories of the letter have moved to reassure people that “all obstetric, neonatal and gynaecological care within Irish law is currently being provided at Holles Street, and will be provided in the new hospital. This will include terminations, tubal ligation, transgender and assisted reproduction services.

“We as clinicians could not countenance any restriction on our practice based on religion.” 

The clinicians have also said that mothers and babies are “grossly ill-served” by the existing maternity hospital, saying it is a “cramped” campus that “is not fit for purpose”.

“It would be a tragedy if the current impasse further delays a colocation project that was first raised back in 1998.”