Irish Examiner view: Women real losers in national maternity hospital delay

Ireland needs a modern, fit-for-purpose facility without further delay

At least now, there is widespread agreement on the need to ensure the State has complete control over the hospital and its lands when Holles St hospital moves from the city centre to the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus.

It seems incredible that we are still discussing issues relating to the private ownership and control of the new National Maternity Hospital so many years after the project was first mooted, while women continue to receive medical treatment in a building designed for the needs of the 19th century.

Further delays seem inevitable, too, given the lack of progress outlined by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in the Dáil on Thursday. He said the State had tried everything possible to purchase the land the hospital will be built on, but had failed to do so. At least now, there is widespread agreement on the need to ensure the State has complete control over the hospital and its lands when Holles St hospital moves from the city centre to the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin was categoric about that yesterday when he said any new hospitals should be public hospitals, owned by the public and built on public lands.

It was heartening to hear him say that the ultimate objective was to look after the women of Ireland and not to become overly obsessive about ownership.

It remains to be seen how the issue can be resolved. The Religious Sisters of Charity own the site and plan to gift it to an independent charity called St Vincent’s Holdings. While the Sisters insist they will not be involved in its running, there is widespread disquiet about their ongoing involvement and a plan to rent the land to the Government as part of a 99-year lease.

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The way forward seems crystal-clear in a country that voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Eighth Amendment. It is “an absolute requirement” that the hospital provide procedures and treatments that are legal in the State, said Mr Varadkar.

Mr Martin went even further to say that, in the modern era, issues over ownership were no longer tenable.

From the Sisters of Charity’s viewpoint, it is difficult to bring to an end almost two centuries of Catholic healthcare and transfer power to a hospital that will carry out abortions and other procedures forbidden by Catholic teaching.

That the religious are still so involved in our health — and education — services is testament to an State that was, in the past, all too willing to hand over control of services it was unwilling to provide itself. Wresting back control was always going to be complicated and legally challenging, but a modern hospital in a modern State must be entirely owned by that State.

The spiralling cost of the new hospital is another cause for concern. It will cost several multiples of the €150m estimated in 2013. On the subject of hospitals, let us note that the Government said this week it could not say how much the new National Children’s Hospital, now estimated at €1.7bn, will cost, or when the project will be completed.

The bigger issue, of course, is that the women of Ireland need a modern, fit-for-purpose maternity hospital. They are already suffering under the ongoing imposition of Covid restrictions at maternity hospitals. Any further delays will do most damage to them.