Redress "Did Not Feature" in Maternity Hospital Relocation Negotiations
RTE News
The mediator in negotiations about relocating the National Maternity Hospital has said monies owed by the Religious Sisters of Charity to a redress scheme did not feature during discussions to move the hospital to the St Vincent's Hospital campus. The land on which the new hospital will be built is owned by the St Vincent's Healthcare Group and the Religious Sisters of Charity are a major shareholder in the group, which will own the new hospital. Former chairman of the Workplace Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey acted as a mediator between the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street and St Vincent's Hospital during the negotiation process. Speaking on RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Mr Mulvey said he empathised with victims but the issue was separate to the one he had been dealing with. He said his terms of reference were to deal with the relocation of the National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street and to put in appropriate arrangements for all concerned. Mr Mulvey said there was an imperative that the National Maternity Hospital would move as quickly as possible to St Vincent’s campus, so a new hospital could be built there. He said the Religious Sisters of Charity own the land on the campus but have no real active role in hospital governance. He said the issues of redress should be addressed in the established redress forum, adding the issue around the National Maternity Hospital was a "separate clinical need" for the women of Ireland, that should be allowed go ahead untarnished. Speaking on the same programme, Fianna Fail's health spokesperson Billy Kelleher said the issue of the outstanding money owed by the order to the redress scheme has to be addressed. However, Mr Kelleher said the National Maternity Hospital project must not be delayed any further. He said Minister for Health Simon Harris must ensure the new facility, which will be State-funded and State-run, will have independence and will not be interfered with. Yesterday Mr Harris said the new facility will have full clinical, operational, financial and budgetary independence. A spokesperson for the Magdalene survivors groups said people are uncomfortable with the idea of the Religious Sisters of Charity still being involved in medical or maternity services operating in Ireland. Steven O'Riordan said the order has never really acknowledged the injustice to the Magdalene women or fully committed to paying the full amount of money to industrial school survivors. He said the State should not allow the religious order to remain involved, in any way, with the new maternity hospital when it was aware of the treatment that women and children had suffered in the past. Mr O'Riordan said the survivors group believe there should be a complete separation of Church and State, and having the religious order involved gives out the wrong impression. Meanwhile, Master of Holles Street Hospital Dr Rhona Mahony said that it is imperative that the new hospital be built as soon as possible. She said it will have an entirely separate board and management and that the issue of redress for people who were in industrial schools was a separate issue. Dr Mahony said that Holles Street is in an ancient, crumbling structure and what is planned at the St Vincent's campus is a state of the art facility, co-located with an adult hospital. Earlier, the Green Party described the Government’s decision to grant the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital to the Religious Sisters of Charity as "wholly inappropriate". A spokesperson said: "It is wholly inappropriate that a group who owe the State and survivors of institutional abuse millions in outstanding reparations should be given ownership of an asset worth hundreds of millions of euro and paid for by public money. "It is also scandalous that the State will pay rent to the same group who have refused to pay their share of compensation for historical abuse that occurred under their watch." The party added that "the choice of this particular group is a insult to survivors of institutional abuse as long as they refuse to meet their obligations." Meanwhile, the former minister of state at the Department of Health when the decision to build the new National Maternity Hospital was made, has said she does not believe the new hospital is "going in the right direction". Speaking on RTE's Drivetime, former Labour TD Kathleen Lynch said that she cannot imagine maternity health being performed in an institution owned by a religious order. "In an era when legislation and people's expectations about their own lives are changing on a yearly basis, for instance: intersex, gender reassignment, IVF - Will all of those things be acceptable? "I really thought that we were beyond the point when the State builds a hospital and yet doesn't own it. And if you don't own your institution that you are delivering your national maternity services in and other people have an input - and who fundamentally disagree with some of the procedures - I think you are storing up problems."
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