{"id":1560,"date":"2021-04-27T16:28:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T15:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/cross-party-group-will-advocate-for-public-ownership-of-national-maternity-hospital\/"},"modified":"2021-04-27T16:28:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T15:28:57","slug":"cross-party-group-will-advocate-for-public-ownership-of-national-maternity-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/cross-party-group-will-advocate-for-public-ownership-of-national-maternity-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-party group will advocate for public ownership of national maternity hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>It is essential, in the interests of Irish women now and in the future, that the national maternity hospital is fully State owned and free of religious control and influence<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>A new cross-party group has been established, by Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall, to advocate for full public ownership of the new national maternity hospital \u2013 and the site on which it will be built.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee, which has members from across the political spectrum including all three government parties, has been formed due to concerns that governance at the new maternity hospital will be influenced by a Catholic ethos. This would clearly have huge implications for clinical independence at the hospital and the treatment of women in Ireland long into the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe existing maternity hospital, at Holles Street, is not fit for purpose \u2013 and has not been for a very long time. But, when it comes to the provision of reproductive healthcare for future generations of Irish women, the notion of any religious involvement cannot be countenanced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have today written to the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, on behalf of this group, to request a meeting so that the issue of public ownership of the hospital can be urgently discussed. This new facility will be treating Irish women for the next 100 years. We have to get it right.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Shortall noted that the proposed move of the national maternity hospital, to St Vincent\u2019s Hospital, had been mired in controversy for years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt didn\u2019t even occur to the last government that gifting a \u20ac500 million public hospital to a religious order \u2013 the Religious Sisters of Charity (RSC), the owners of St Vincent\u2019s Hospital Group \u2013 was a problem, until there were public demonstrations about the plans in 2017<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing that, the Sisters of Charity announced they were ending their involvement in St Vincent\u2019s Hospital and moving their ownership to a new corporate entity, St Vincent\u2019s Holdings. In May last, the Order received conditional permission from the Vatican to transfer their shareholding to this new entity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, concerns remain that the constitution of this new corporate entity will mandate a Catholic ethos, which necessarily limits the type of reproductive healthcare that women can receive, at the new maternity hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMeanwhile, nearly four years after they announced they were ending their involvement in St Vincent\u2019s Hospital, the Sisters of Charity remain the sole shareholder of St Vincent\u2019s Hospital Group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it stands, if the project proceeds in its current guise, it means the national maternity hospital would be owned by St Vincent\u2019s Holdings, the successor to the Sisters of Charity with the same Catholic core values.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also means the State would be transferring the ownership of a large, publicly funded, hospital to a private company, on privately owned land, with all the implications that has for Sl\u00e1intecare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is essential, in the interests of Irish women now and in the future, that the national maternity hospital is fully State owned and free of religious control and influence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>27 April, 2021<\/p>\n<p>Ends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is essential, in the interests of Irish women now and in the future, that the national maternity hospital is fully State owned and free of religious control and influence A new cross-party group has been established, by Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall, to advocate for full public ownership of the new national maternity hospital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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