Cabinet to approve doubling of lease for new National Maternity Hospital to 299 years 

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly: Memorandum will formally set out the legal framework under which the hospital will operate. Picture: PA

The lease for the new €800m National Maternity Hospital at St Vincent’s will now be 299 years, not 149 as previously agreed, under plans to be approved by Cabinet today.

The memorandum to be tabled by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will also see increased State representation on the hospital's board.

The Government has repeatedly said that the Sisters of Charity will have no input into the running or ethos of the hospital, and it is hoped that the lease timescale will ease critics' concerns.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has repeatedly said there can be no semblance or even perception of religious influence in the new hospital.

The proposed governance arrangement would appear to end speculation that the Government would use a compulsory purchase order to take full ownership of the site.

Mr Donnelly’s memorandum will formally set out the legal framework under which the hospital will operate.

It will say that, on foot of an agreement with the St Vincent’s Hospital Group, the new hospital board will now include three independent directors selected by the minister, alongside three nominated by St Vincent’s, and three nominated by the National Maternity Hospital.

It had been envisaged that St Vincent's and the National Maternity Hospital would have four board positions each, but it has been agreed to reduce these down to increase the State's presence on the board.

St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, owner of the Elm Park site in south Dublin, last year said agreements had been reached with the public authorities to change the terms on which the new hospital will be governed.

The plan to move the National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street in central Dublin to the St Vincent’s campus has been in train since 2013 but the project has been mired in controversy for years.

The Religious Sisters of Charity are due to transfer the ownership of lands at St Vincent’s to an independent entity, which was to lease the new maternity hospital site to the State for 99 years with a 50-year extension. However, critics claimed a Catholic religious ethos would live on, possibly compromising the hospital’s power to carry out services such as pregnancy termination.

Before Christmas, the National Maternity Hospital board gave its approval for a proposal which will in effect double the duration of the original lease that was on offer.

“The Health Service Executive will own the building on a ground lease of 299 years and there will be a change to the board composition,” said a source.

The prolonged lease duration and board changes were confirmed by a second source briefed on the talks but it is understood that the HSE board has yet to sign off on the plan.

In the new arrangement there will be three public-interest directors on the board which will run the hospital, a change from the original proposal to have only one such director.

Last month, a petition with 10,000 signatures, calling for the new National Maternity Hospital to be publicly owned, was presented to Mr Martin’s office in Cork.