WHY DON’T WE JUST BUY THE HOSPITAL SITE?
As nuns provoke fury by threatening to pull plug on new Maternity Hospital, calls for the land to be acquired by Compulsory Purchase
THE State should forcibly buy the site for the new National Maternity Hospital, a Government minister demanded last night.
John Halligan added his voice to a growing number of politicians insisting that the land for the urgently needed facility should be obtained through a Compulsory Purchase Order if necessary.
The calls came amid growing anger over a threat by the Sisters of Charity, who own the site, to axe the entire
Maternity Hospital project. The nuns made the threat in response to concerns that their demand for out tright ownership of the new hospital might see vital medical treatments denied to patients on religious grounds.
Mr Halligan, Junior Minister for Jobs, said: ‘I think that the land owned by religious orders should all be sold and the money used to pay redress to the victims of clerical abuse, and if the nuns do not give the land over I think it should be seized through a compulsory purchase order.
‘The Sisters of Charity are a very wealthy order, and don’t forget they still owe the Government €3million that was supposed to go to the victims of abuse.’
Fears are now growing for the future of the hospital, planned for the St Vincent’s Hospital campus in south Dublin, after the St Vincent’s Healthcare group said last night that it was reviewing a deal it struck with the National Maternity Hospital to build it.
The Sisters of Charity own the St Vincent’s group, whose board is directly answerable to the order and is tasked with running the hospital in accordance with its principles and ethos.
It is feared the nuns could prevent medical abortions, vasectomies and IVF.
In a statement last night, Jimmy Menton, chairman of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, said: ‘In view of the controversy and misinformation that has arisen in recent times regarding the project, and the views expressed by the Minister for Health and other members of the Oireachtas, the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group will review the status of the project in light of the current situation.’
The announcement has thrown the future of the project into doubt at a time when the existing National Maternity Hospital is located in an old and overecrowded building in Holles Street.
Last night senior counsel Michael P McGrath – who is an expert in planning, conveyancing and property law – told the Mail that there is a legal precedent that the Government could use to make a Compulsory Purchase Order on the hospital site. He said: ‘Part Eight of the Health Act 1947 states there is a power of compulsory purchase to the HSE when it comes to hospitals.’
And although the Constitution does make religious orders exempt from CPOs, they are not considered exempt if the land is needed is for a ‘necessary work of public utility’. Mr McGrath believes this could make it possible for the Government to issue a CPO to the Sisters of Charity. He said: ‘You could certainly argue it.’
People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith also said the State could obtain a Compulsory Purchase Order for the Elm Park site. CPOs allow state bodes buy land, even if the owner doesn’t consent, usually to allow a public infrastructure project go ahead for the common good. They are most often used for road improvement schemes.
Ms Smith told the Mail: ‘The hospital should be independent entirely and absolutely, 1,000% independent of the Church and if it’s necessary to make sure that happens, the State can CPO the land.’
The Sisters of Charity still owe €3million in redress towards victims of institutional child abuse, and Ms Smith said that could be subtracted from the money they would get from the State.
She hoped that the project would go ahead as the design had been hailed as superb by clinicians and the Health Minister.
Workers’ Party councillor Eilis Ryan, who organised a protest of hundreds against the religious order owning the new hospital,
‘They are a very wealthy order’
said a CPO would be the best way to acquire the proposed site.
She said: ‘I think it’s the only way for the Government to get out of this mess. There’s no reason why it wouldn’t be possible, part of the definition of when a compulsory purchase order can be used is when the acquisition of the land is in the common good. In Ireland it’s mainly been used for building roads, but it can be used for other purposes.’
‘The head of the High Court recently said that there is no proof the court bans CPOs in any way,’ she added. ‘The fact that CPOs have been used for building roads previously shows it’s possible.’
A protest organised by a group called Parents for Choice will take place at 3pm outside the existing hospital at Holles Street today.
Meanwhile one expert on CPOs, Pat Davitt, chief executive with the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, said he believed it could be prove tricky to push a CPO through in this case.
He said: ‘It would be quite difficult with that particular site.’
However, the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Ireland, said it is possible to object to a CPO, but that ‘valid objections are generally on planning or legal grounds only’.
In a statement last night, the Department of Health said: ‘The minister outlined his position very clearly on this yesterday and remains fully committed to this hugely important project.’
It added that the minister is confident ‘the clinical, operational and financial independence of the new hospital as provided for in the agreement will also be copperfastened in new legal arrangements’.
The storm over the nun’s planned ownership of the new maternity hospital grew after the former master of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, Dr Peter Boylan, warned that the Sisters of Charity could attempt to impose a religious ethos on the new facility.
Fianna Fáil Health spokesman Billy Kelleher said: ‘I find it extraordinary that, after many days of intense speculation, it now seems that the agreement reached regarding the new National Maternity Hospital does in fact allow St Vincent’s to play a role in clinical
‘It’s the only way to get out of the mess’
governance at the hospital. This contradicts previous statements by Minister for Health Simon Harris on this matter. Mr Harris has either misunderstood the deal or deliberately misleads the public on the specific details of this deal.’
In its statement, the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group said the deal to relocate the existing National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s, had been agreed last November following ‘six months of intensive discussions chaired by Kieran Mulvey, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the National Maternity Hospital.’
He added that both hospitals had signed a ‘comprehensive agreement providing for the corporate and clinical governance arrangements for the future operation’ of the hospital, which had been ‘publicly endorsed and welcomed’ by Health Minister Simon Harris and Taoiseach Enda Kenny at a press briefing in Government Buildings.’
IN general, the innate Catholic faith of the Irish people is not respected by the Irish media. According to the most recent census, four-fifths of Irish people identified themselves as Catholic: yet among the chattering classes Catholics are routinely mocked and pilloried for their faith.
Moreover, the majority of parents in this country are happy to avail of a Catholic education provided in schools owned by the Church. The main reason so few have been divested is that when parents are asked if they want their local Catholic school to become non-denominational, the majority routinely say no. Yet on this issue again, their preferences are not respected by a liberal-dominated media which demands an end to Catholic education – regardless of the majority’s preference.
While such sneering at the majority view may be inherently unfair, however, the actions of organisations like the Sisters of Charity make it easier to understand why opponents of the Church are so vituperative. Frankly, organisations like this give Catholicism – and indeed charity – a bad name.
Firstly, the Sisters of Charity ran Magdalene Laundries, institutions where women who had committed the ‘sin’ of having babies were worked as slave labour, abused both psychologically and physically. Then, having agreed to pay a measly €5million to compensate the victims, the Sisters reneged: so far only €2million has been handed over.
Now, with regard to the new National Maternity Hospital the Sisters of Charity are again behaving in a way seemingly incompatible with the teachings of their faith. First, they fought tooth and nail for total control over its running – including decisions on clinical practice.
Eventually, after months of talks, they agreed a joint management system in which their representatives will not have a majority (though they will have four out of the nine board members). However they have insisted on retaining ownership of the hospital – even though it will be built with €300million taxpayers’ money.
Naturally, this led many (including the distinguished former master of Holles Street, Dr Peter Boylan) to question whether they will try to interfere with the running of the maternity hospital. After all, their own hospital, St Vincent’s, does not offer sterilisation or vasectomy – on religious grounds. Could we really see these nuns allowing a hospital they own offering abortions, IVF treatment or the like?
Now the nuns’ hospital group has effectively threatened to pull the plug on the entire project. This petulant act will be interpreted as an attempt to blackmail the Government into accepting their terms: and it comes despite the €250million of taxpayers’ cash that goes into their coffers each year to run St Vincent’s hospital.
The State cannot and must not give in. If necessary, the site should be acquired for the Irish people under Compulsory Purchase Order – a law which exists specifically so that the Government can buy the land it needs for public infrastructure projects which are for the common good. If St Vincent’s will not co-operate, the State should start to move public patients to other hospitals and see how their organisation survives without our €250million a year.
Hopefully, faced with such a reality, the Sisters of Charity might recognise the need to do a deal which puts the new National Maternity Hospital into public ownership – and with no input from any religious group. After all, we have just celebrated the feast of Easter, in which the Christian world acknowledges that Jesus Christ gave his own life for others.
In that context, are the Sisters of Charity giving the Irish people their own maternity hospital really too much to ask?