What disturbs me is the process surrounding maternity hospital
Arguements about religion, power, and conflict of interest swirling around the proposal to build a new national maternity hospital on the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital, which is owned by the Sisters of Charity, ignore the elephant in the room. The essential conflict of interest, one almost unmentioned, is money.
In the gust of outrage about a new €300m maternity hospital being built on land owned by nuns, something essential is overlooked. That new hospital will be a gleaming money-making machine for private medical practice. It will be entirely paid for by the taxpayer. The site is currently owned and will remain in the hands of the Sisters of Charity. In a prevailing mood of anti-clericalism this sticks in the craw of many most vocal in the public conversation.
