Nuns’ ownership of new Irish maternity hospital a ‘technical detail’ as critics say Ireland doesn’t take women’s health seriously

IRELAND
Irish Post

April 26, 2017, By Erica Doyle Higgins

AN IRISH maternity hospital chief has said nuns’ ownership of a new €300m unit in Ireland is a ‘technical detail’ as criticism for the decision continues to roll in.

The Sisters of Charity are one of 18 religious congregations who managed residential institutions for children investigated by the Ryan Commission and was party to the 2002 €128million indemnity agreement with the State.

After the Ryan Report in 2009, the Sisters of Charity offered to contribute a further €5million towards the €1.5billion redress costs incurred by the State involving former residents of the institutions.

But according to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report last month the order have contributed just €2million of their 2009 offer.

Late last year Ireland’s Department of Health said the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin and St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group – of which the Sisters of Charity are a major shareholder – had agreed a new governance structure.

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