IRELAND
Irish Independent
Catherine O’Mahony
April 22 2017
Feelings are running high – that’s for sure. Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition to block the state from granting sole ownership of the proposed National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity, the order that owns the St Vincent’s Hospital site in Dublin’s Ballsbridge where the new hospital is set to land.
So vehement is the opposition that the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group yesterday said it was reviewing the status of the whole project.
Calls are being made for a clear divide between church and state on matters regarding health. Questions are being asked as to why any religious order should take ownership of the state-funded hospital, much less a maternity hospital where procedures sometimes need to take place that run counter to Catholic teachings.
Survivors of abuse at Magdalene Laundries are justifiably outraged because the Sisters of Charity have so far paid out only €2m of the €5m they are due to pay in redress.
There can be no excuse for this order not to pay its due. If the state can exert influence in this regard, it must.
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