Reports that the Minister for Health tried to exempt the National Maternity Hospital from spending rules for large capital projects are deeply alarming, according to Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcerns over the National Maternity Hospital are now mounting on two fronts: 1) the ownership and ethos of the new hospital, and 2) the Minister\u2019s recent move to circumvent rules on spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpending rules are in place to ensure major capital projects are planned properly and to prevent large overspends \u2013 like the one we have seen with the children\u2019s hospital, where costs have spiralled to in excess of \u20ac1.4 billion. Minister Stephen Donnelly appears to want to throw caution to the wind and disregard spending rules, when it comes to the National Maternity Hospital, which would prevent a repeat of this shambles.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs regards ownership and ethos, a cross-party group on the new national maternity hospital wrote to the Minister in April to ask for a meeting to discuss their serious concerns, but their request has so far been ignored.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group came together, across the political divide, to advocate for a maternity hospital under full public ownership and free of private interests or religious control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister has his blinkers on as to what is contained in this deal. Why is he so set on forcing it through at all costs?<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the current arrangement, the National Maternity Hospital will be located on land owned by St Vincent\u2019s Holdings, the private successor to the Sisters of Charity with the same religious values included in its constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis puts women\u2019s healthcare in serious jeopardy, and it means the taxpayer will be funding the building of a hospital on land which is ultimately owned by a private entity operating under religious ethos. This is in direct contradiction to the aims of Sl\u00e1intecare, which recommends that all public healthcare facilities would be in public ownership.<\/p>\n
10 May, 2021<\/p>\n
Ends.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reports that the Minister for Health tried to exempt the National Maternity Hospital from spending rules for large capital projects are deeply alarming, according to Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall. \u201cConcerns over the National Maternity Hospital are now mounting on two fronts: 1) the ownership and ethos of the new hospital, and 2) the Minister\u2019s […]<\/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-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n