DCC Councillors call for public ownership of New National Maternity Hospital

(Pictured yesterday delivering the letter to Minister Stephen Donnelly, left to right: Darryl Horan (UCD Student’s Union, UCD Campaigns), Jo Tully (Our Maternity Hospital Campaign Chair), Deputy Brid Smith (People Before Profit), Deputy Roisin Shortall (SocDems), Dr. Peter Boylan (NMH Former Master), Catherine Stocker (DCC SocDems Councillor), Deputy Joan Collins (Independent, Right2Change), Somhairle Brennan (USI Welfare), Deputy Catherine Murphy (Soc Dems), Megan O’Connor (USI Education), Larry O’Toole (DCC Sinn Fein Councillor)

MORE than half of Dublin City Councillors, including representatives of the Social Democrats, Labour Party, Green Party, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein Fine Gael, People Before Profit and Independents, have signed a letter calling on Health minister Stephen Donnelly to reconsider plans to locate the new National Maternity Hospital on private land at St Vincents Hospital.

Yesterday, members who signed the letter joined with members of the Oireachtas Cross Party National Maternity Hospital Group and civil members of the National Maternity Hospital Group outside the Dail to highlight their concerns about the proposed location and deliver the letter (which can be read below) to the Minister.

FAO: Minister Stephen Donnelly

We, the undersigned, as Dublin City Councillors and representatives of the people of Dublin wish to express our grave concern over reported efforts to push forward with a plan for our new National Maternity Hospital which will result in a privately owned, religiously influenced hospital.

Concerns have been raised over the proposed relocation to the Elm Park site for many years now and yet this government has continued to pursue this plan – which has been costly in terms of both time and money. The time for debate on this has passed.

It is not possible to square the circle of a National Maternity Hospital on religiously owned lands.

We call on the government to immediately pursue alternative options with regard to the location of the NMH in order to ensure a modern facility which is truly public and secular.

There are two issues to consider here.

The first is the issue of clinical independence and potential religious influence.

We do not believe that this hospital will have full clinical independence, because it will be managed by St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, whose directors the Religious Sisters of Charity have always appointed.

The influence of the order remains despite an intention to divest to the St Vincent’s Holdings – a move which is largely a matter of optics. The 2017 St Vincents Healthcare Group Annual Report stated that the future directors of St Vincent’s Holdings would be ‘obliged to uphold the values and vision’ of Mother Mary Aikenhead, the founder of the Religious Sisters of Charity.

Church authorities at the highest level have accepted that the Aikenhead values refer to the nuns’ code, which means the new hospital will be bound by their approach to healthcare.

This means procedures banned by Rome will not be carried out, except, in the case of abortion, in a life-threatening emergency.

As has been pointed out many times – and has yet to be disproved- there is not a hospital in the world on land owned by the Catholic Church which provides a full range of maternity and obstetric services – abortions, IVF, gender reassignment surgery amongst others.

While in recent days we have heard that the agreement will indicate that these services will be provided, they are still not mentioned by name so there is no specific commitment to their provision. Given what a sticking point this is, one has to ask, why not?

We cannot, under any circumstances, allow our new

National Maternity Hospital to proceed with anything less than full and absolute clinical independence and the provision of all the services we have fought to long and hard to make possible.

The second is the issue of public ownership.

Under current plans, the State would own only the building, not the hospital, a poor return for €800 m.

Where the State decides to build any new hospital or facility, it should endeavour to ensure that it owns the land on which the hospital or facility is built, as recommended in the Report of the Independent Review Group established to examine the role of voluntary organisations in publicly funded health and personal social services.

Our new National Maternity Hospital should be constructed on land owned by the State and be fully owned and governed by the State in order to guarantee its secular ethos and safeguard state investment.

Yours faithfully

Cllr Catherine Stocker SD

Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland Lab

Cllr Christy Burke Ind

Cllr Ray McAdam FG

Cllr Máire Devine SF

Cllr Colm O’Rourke FG

Cllr Janice Boylan SF

Cllr Darragh Moriarty Lab

Cllr Cat O’Driscoll SD

Cllr Mary Callaghan

Cllr Declan Meenagh Lab

Cllr Joe Costello Lab – Dep LM

Cllr Damian O’Farrell Ind

Cllr Jane Horgan-Jones Lab

Cllr Hazel Chu Green

Cllr Daíthí de Róiste FF

Cllr Tara Deacy SD

Cllr Patricia Roe SD

Cllr Dearbhail Butler Green

Cllr John Lyons Ind

Cllr Cieran Perry Ind

Cllr Noeleen Reilly Ind

Cllr Sophie Nicoullaud Ind

Cllr Daithí Doolan SF

Cllr Briege MacOscar FF

Cllr Caroline Conroy Green

Cllr Tina McVeigh PBP

Cllr Hazel de Nortúin PBP

Cllr Pat Dunne Ind

Cllr Eimer McCormack FF

Cllr Janet Horner Green

Cllr Donna Cooney Green

Cllr Anne Feeney FG

Cllr Micheal Mac Donncha SF (former NMH board member)

Cllr Mary Freehil Lab