Letters to the editor: State must own site for maternity hospital

No hospital in the world on land owned by a Catholic organisation provides procedures forbidden by universal Catholic teaching and NMH will not be an exception

A public national maternity hospital is the only way to guarantee that women will have access to modern reproductive healthcare, independent of Catholic ethos and private business interests.

New proposals from the Religious Sisters of Charity, the owners of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG), do nothing to allay serious concerns about the ownership, governance, and clinical independence of the new publicly-funded National Maternity Hospital (NMH).

They want to change the board composition of the planned new NMH, and increase the lease it will grant to the State from 99 to 299 years.