A possible f ix for Vincent’s: Lease option to secure the site for 999 years
Proposal would allow nuns own land but not the hospital... as ministers fear battling egos
THE Health Department believes it can solve the debacle over the planned new National Maternity Hospital by simply setting up a new company to lease the land from the Sisters of Mercy, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The latest attempt to take the heat out of the increasingly bitter battle among the country’s most senior medics comes as Government ministers warn of a battle of egos.
The department is expected to propose that a new company could lease land from the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, which is owned by the nuns’ order, on a long-term basis. A senior source at the department said it favours a long-term lease, potentially up to 999 years, to resolve the row.
This would mean the nuns would not own the hospital building.
‘There needs to be further steps to absolutely secure the ownership for the State,’ said the source.
‘If you lease the land and you have a right to build on the land, well then you own the hospital. You don’t own the land that the hospital is on but you have the right to use it forever and a day and you only pay a small amount,’ said the source.
There is also a second option being looked at by the department.
‘The other option, is the HSE will be building this hospital. The HSE will then have to transfer that hospital to some entity at the end or hold on to it.
‘The HSE could hold it on its balance sheet and then licence it to some company to run. But the State holds the building and there would be no €300m to the nuns. Though there never really was a €300m to the nuns,’ said the source.
A number of medical professionals are opposing the building of the new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent’s campus because they believe clinical decisions could be affected by the Catholic ethos of the Sisters of Charity, who own the St Vincent’s hospital group.
Some medical professionals believe the new hospital will not be able to carry out gynaecological procedures, which the Catholic Church opposes. Dr Peter Boylan and relocation project planner Professor Chris Fitzpatrick have spoken up for no Church involvement in the hospital.
The National Maternity Hospital’s board has provided assurances that the facility will be run independently and will carry out procedures such as IVF and sterilisations that are opposed by the Catholic Church, however Dr Boylan resigned as a board member.
The plan envisages the present National Maternity Hospital moving from its unsuitable building in the city centre to a new state-of-the-art hospital on the St Vincent’s site in south Dublin. The Department of Health will open negotiations with the two hospitals which are expected to last a month.
However, Government sources believe the row has been driven by high-profile people. One minister said: ‘You have medical validity of egos here. “My view is better than yours”. It’s getting to the point now where it is getting a bit silly. We passionately believe we are going to get this sorted out but it is not going to be sorted out in the fashion of “he said, she said”.’
Veteran negotiator Kieran Mulvey helped broker the agreement between Holles Street and St Vincent’s. He said yesterday that it was not possible for the nuns to give up ownership of St Vincent’s because of intertwined loans. He said St Vincent’s Healthcare Group had large borrowings connected to the hospital site and ‘the idea that you can just separate a piece of land is just not legally possible at the moment... There are large borrowings by the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group which will have to be met’.
He said he believed the issue of ownership can be satisfactorily resolved between the department and St Vincent’s in the future.
Responding to that yesterday, Dr Boylan said: ‘Kieran Mulvey’s comments were very interesting, I was not aware of that. I’m sure the negotiators were aware but the board were not informed that the Sisters of Charity could not sell the land. They are saying the State has a lien on the land but how does that work if, as it appears, there is already a lien on the land? ‘This does not change my mind. I still find the deal unacceptable in its current form.’
And one Government minister
‘You would have the right to use it for ever’
said that ultimately the Cabinet and the Health Minister will decided on the ownership.
‘Kieran Mulvey doesn’t run the country,’ said the minister, ‘he did a good job, he did it very well and he put together an agreement between the two hospitals. But he is not the Government, the Government now has a job of work to do, which is to make sure we are absolutely satisfied with the ownership question.’
It also emerged that should the Sisters of Charity want to donate the land to the State at some stage it may require Vatican approval. They are an ‘institute of pontifical-right’ meaning they derive their authority directly from the Holy See, and because of this all their assets must, under Canon law, be used to further the objectives of the Church.