Donnelly to face grilling over National Maternity Hospital deal

Health minister to answer questions amid controversy about ownership and governance of the delayed hospital

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly. The Cabinet delayed signing off on building the National Maternity Hospital on land leased from a charitable trust, claiming more time was required to examine the full details. Picture: Brian Lawless 

The health minister is to be questioned on the proposed National Maternity Hospital deal amid continued calls to ensure the new facility is built on public land.

Stephen Donnelly will appear before the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday after the Cabinet delayed signing off on building the hospital on land leased from a charitable trust, claiming more time was required to examine the full details.

A poll over the weekend found that 60% of people are not satisfied with the plans for the hospital.

The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll found that 45% of people think there would be religious interference in medical services, while 41% believe that this will not be the case.

Asked about the poll, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said:

I think we really shouldn’t lose sight of the prize here and that is to build a world-class maternity hospital, something that we don’t have, something that we should have, and a project that I’m very supportive of. 

Mr Varadkar said the new facility, when built, will provide ensuite rooms for every mother; babies in neonatal intensive care will have their own room; and the number of theatres will increase from two to five, which will all deliver better outcomes. 

“If we were to choose a standalone site somewhere else, it would certainly take years; it wouldn’t achieve co-location, so we wouldn’t achieve the best outcomes for women and children,” he said. “It would certainly cost more and it might not even get planning permission.

“What we have here is an opportunity which is very, very good, and then there are alternatives that may not be possible to deliver. That’s a choice that we have to make.”

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald again called on Government to ensure the hospital is built on State-owned land, and called for the land to be gifted to the Irish people: 

When the taxpayer is investing up to €1bn in a new facility, it only makes sense that they would own the land on which that hospital is constructed and the position of Government doesn’t tally with that common sense.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said. “We’ve always called for the separation of Church and State, that you can’t have the interference of one into the other. It has to be very clear,” she told Newstalk.

“Here’s an opportunity for the first time in 100 years for the State to make that break and to say absolutely this hospital has to be 100% fully owned and controlled by the State for the women and girls of Ireland.”