Green Party's Neasa Hourigan will vote against Government on National Maternity Hospital motion

A number of Green Party TDs have expressed misgivings on the deal 

Neasa Hourigan TD during a publication of a paper on a Citizens’ Assembly on Evidence Informed Drugs Policy from a Harm Reduction Perspective during a press briefing on the plinth of Leinster House, Dublin.

Neasa Hourigan, the Green Party TD, has confirmed that she will vote against the Government and back a Sinn Féin private members' motion on the National Maternity Hospital.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, she said she will break ranks with the Government and risk expulsion from the Green Party parliamentary party.

She said: "Although the Sinn Féin motion is not binding, I will be supporting the motion in order to formally register my objection to the National Maternity Hospital proceeding in its current format."

Ms Hourigan said the Green Party should have made this issue a battle and ensured there was a public hospital built on public land.

A spokesman for Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said they would not be commenting on a vote that has not yet happened, when asked what would Ms Hourigan's fate be should she actually vote against the Government.

Since last weekend, Ms Hourigan has voiced increasing concerns about the development of the new hospital at the Elm Park site, and has decided to back the Sinn Féin motion even though the Cabinet approved the development at St Vincent's Hospital on Tuesday morning.

'Being shut down'

Earlier, when it appeared there would not be a vote on the matter, she said she was "very frustrated that even this opportunity to register dissent is being shut down".

Other Green Party TDs, including Dublin South Central TD Patrick Costello, have also expressed misgivings about the decision to proceed on the basis of a 300-year lease as opposed to ownership.

In the Dáil, Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane says he does not believe the future of Irish healthcare is safe with the Government.

“We heard yesterday from the St Vincent's healthcare group pretty clearly that there was no meaningful engagement between them and Government on the issue of ownership,” he said.

“The collective muscle of the State was not used or brought to bear in any talks whatsoever. So I think it's absolutely incredible, that all of that time has passed, and there was no legal effort made by the minister for health to push the use of land ownership."

The Taoiseach said there had been attempts to "conjure up an idea that somehow there is a conspiracy behind the utilisation of the phrase ‘clinically appropriate’".

“We've addressed those issues through legal practice and the advice to the Government is that those legal guarantees are watertight, is the advice we've received in respect of the constitution of the hospital, in respect of the operating license to be given to the new hospital in terms of having to ensure all lawful services are performed," he said.