Yearly Archives: 2017

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From top: Dublin’s Lord Mayor Brendan Carr on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland; Dublin City Councillor, with the Green Party, Clare Byrne; and a graphic from mediator Kieran Mulvey’s report on the agreement to the Minister for Health Simon Harris

This morning.

On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Brendan Carr, spoke to Cathal MacCoille, following last night’s meeting of the board of the National Maternity Hospital where a motion re-endorsing the agreement for it to move to the St Vincent’s site was passed.

Mr Carr was one of three members who opposed the motion.

During the interview, Mr Carr told Mr Mac Coille:

“A number of people stressed to me last night when that initial decision was made, they took it under duress. I thought, what I’m saying is last night, my opinion, right, I stress this is my opinion, the manner in which some members of the board were treated last night was done in a very bullying and intimidatory way. That’s my opinion.”

Following Morning Ireland, Labour party leader Brendan Howlin and two board members of the National Maternity Hospital, Sinn Féin councillor Micheal MacDonncha and Green party councillor Clare Byrne, both of whom were at last night’s meeting, spoke on Today with Seán O’Rourke.

During the segment, Ms Byrne said she understands the Religious Sisters of Charity “will have no representation on the governance” of the new hospital.

From the interview…

Clare Byrne: “In three years, as a board member, that’s the first time that I’ve sat at that table with the Lord Mayor. So, he was coming to a meeting discussing an issue that has been repeatedly discussed for a number of years. He didn’t attend any of the special meetings that were called. So, it was terse meeting, there’s no denying that. But, of course it was, I mean it’s an extremely important decision that’s being made. And, obviously, it’s important to consider the opinion of the public…”

Sean O’Rourke: “And…”

Byrne: “…which we made very clear over the last week also.”

O’Rourke: “What do you make of Peter Boylan, his reason, I think, for resigning. Just to quote from him, ‘I can’t remain a member of the board that is so blind to the consequences of his decision to transfer sole ownership of the hospital to the Religious Sisters of Charity and so deaf to the concerns of the public which it serves’. You’re all deaf. And blind.”

Byrne: “No, I certainly don’t think I’m deaf and blind to the concerns of the public. I’ve listened very carefully to, and I’ve had a number of people contact me over the last few days, in particular. And I do share their concerns. Absolutely. But look, the reality is, is that we need this hospital and this is the only site that was being offered. There has been little or no support from this government or the previous government, which Brendan [Howlin] you were a member of, to do anything to end the marriage between church and State. There’s been little support for the board for this move which is a crucial service that we need for the women of Ireland. I had my child in Holles Street last year, I received an impeccable level of care but how they do it, in those conditions, is nothing short of a miracle on a daily basis.”

[Can hear Ms Byrne’s baby in background]

O’Rourke: “And the baby is obviously thriving, we’re glad to hear. There’s no doubt about it.”

Byrne: “He is, he is. But the reality is, is that building is not fit for purpose. And they’re in situations where they’re literally shoving beds in between beds and you may have a woman who has just lost a child having to recover surrounded by women who are celebrating the birth of their children. To me, that’s not fair. I think it’s cruel. That needs to change. This move to Vincent’s will provide the level of maternity care that women of Ireland…”

Brendan Howlin: “Everyone is in agreement that we need a new hospital. I walked every inch of it with Dr Rhona Mahony. I went back and immediately spoke to [former minister for health] Dr James Reilly, we allocated the money to do it. Nobody is arguing that there shouldn’t be a new national maternity hospital. But we have to think generationally into the future. That it would be democratically controlled and…”

Byrne: “But Brendan with all due respect, you know that that land was owned by the Sisters of Charity when you walked the site back then, so why didn’t you do anything about it when you were in government?”

Howlin: “Because I would have insisted, had I been in government, that the control and ownership would be exactly the same as in Holles Street. That’s what I understood was going to happen.”

Byrne: “Well, my understanding from the board meeting back in November and, again, last night, is that the Sisters of Charity will have no representation on the governance or input into the clinical [inaudible]…”

Howlin: “But they will have four out of the nine members of the board…why would they want to, if they don’t have any influence, and would the sensible, sane and rational thing now to do would simply be to hand over the land, including getting compensation, getting…”

Byrne: “But that’s not a matter for the board to decide. That’s a matter for the minister to decide. The ownership…”

Howlin: “No, but the governors are the future of the hospital. Maintaining the ethos that you praised within Holles Street is a matter for the board to decide. And, you know, the notion that you’re going to have a legal agreement that [inaudible], that give you assurances, that all sounds well and good but let’s put it beyond doubt now, let’s have ownership..”

Talk over each other

Byrne: “Well, hopefully, when the minister signs off on the final memorandum of agreement, that will be put beyond doubt. And it’s up to him to ensure that that’s what happens now.”

O’Rourke: “I just want to…”

Byrne: “I’m satisfied from the current governance structure that the Sisters of Charity will have no input into clinical decisions made in that hospital…”

Howlin: “Why do they want to own it then?”

Bryne: “And of course I’m concerned about that for the women of Ireland. I want to see a repeal of the Eighth Amendment. I raised those concerns repeatedly during the meeting and I’m satisfied from the responses that I received from the negotiating team, and the legal team, that that will not be the case.”

Later

Howlin: “Kieran Mulvey was brought in and I’ve dealt with Kieran Mulvey for 20 years, to broker deals between parties in dispute. So the fact that there was a dispute between the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital indicates that what was brokered was a settlement…”

O’Rourke: “And it was one side had ownership and the other side had control.”

Howlin: “Well, that’s the point. I don’t think it’s right that people should…”

O’Rourke: “And the minster has a veto…”

Howlin: “Well, I mean there’s going to be a board of nine, four of them are going to be appointed by the Sisters of Charity, four by the National Maternity Hospital and, if you like, the casting vote or the deciding vote is to be an eminent person, in the field of…”

Byrne: “[inaudible]…by St Vincent’s.”

Howlin: “I beg your pardon.”

Byrne: “Four will be appointed by St Vincent’s…

Howlin: “No, no, the St Vincent’s trust, which is the Sisters of Charity.”

Byrne: “Well, my understanding is…”

Howlin: “It’s the St Vincent’s trust who are the Sisters of Charity, is that not a fact?”

Byrne: “My understanding is that the Sisters of Charity will have no input into who’s elected onto the [inaudible]”

Howlin: “You’ve attended all the meetings, you’ve said to us that the…the St Vincent’s trust is the Sisters of Charity. And so they would nominate four, maybe you haven’t a full grasp of that. And maybe…”

O’Rourke: “Just to come back Micheal MacDonncha, do you want to enlighten us on that?”

Micheal MacDonncha: “Yes, I mean, that is, what Brendan Howlin is saying there is correct and let’s remember that, from day one here, the aim of the St Vincent’s Trust was complete control. Their original approach was that they wanted to subsume the National Maternity Hospital into Vincent’s and that was the starting point and, hence, there was deadlock and hence there was negotiations and that has been revealed by the Lord Mayor. It was stated at the meeting last night that members themselves that they were under duress to endorse the agreement back in November…there was duress in the sense that it was a Hobson’s choice. It was either this agreement or no hospital.”

Listen back in full here

Thanks Ian

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Yesterday.

Buswells Hotel and Leinster House, Dublin 2

A visit to Dublin of Ládio Veron, spokesman of the Guarani-Kaiowá, an indigenous people of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul..

From left: People Profit TD Gino Kenny, Guarani- Kaiowa Chief, Cacique Ladio Veron and Solidarity TD Richard Boyd Barrett,  helped highlight the “suffering, injustice and persecution being inflicted on the Guarani-Kaiowá” including  the murder of 891 indigenous killed between 2013 and 2017, of which 426 were in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Ládio Veron. The Guaraní Kaiowà people could soon be wiped out (LifeGate)

Rollignnews

DUB-Dublin-Four-Courts-and-River-Liffey-from-Merchants-Quay-05-3008x2000noonan

From top: Four Courts, Dublin ; Michael Noonan

This afternoon

In the High Court.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly approved a settlement involving a package worth €6.3million for Grace, the non-verbal, intellectually disabled woman who is now in her 40s and who lived with an abusive foster family for 20 years, until 2009.

Grace lived in the home for almost 13 years after the local health board decided to stop placing children at the home in 1996. The decision to remove Grace came after the mother of a female service user claimed her daughter was sexually molested while she had spent a week on holiday/respite at Grace’s foster home.

The decision to reverse this decision to remove Grace occurred after a letter was sent by the foster father to then Minister for Health Michael Noonan in August, 1996.

The letter to Mr Noonan, which had been copied to the health board, appealed to the minister to “decide in their favour”.

Also in August 1996, Mr Noonan received a letter from the principal of a school attended by the foster parents’ grandson, in which the principal wrote in support of Grace staying with the foster family.

The matter is the subject of a Commission of Investigation, chaired by SC Marjorie Farrelly, launched in March of this year.

Further to this…

RTE reports:

Mr Justice Peter Kelly approved a settlement involving a package of measures worth €6.3m for the woman referred to as ‘Grace’.

The Health Service Executive apologised to the woman in court for the failings in her care.

The failings included inadequate monitoring and oversight of her care and inadequate action to remove her from the foster home after significant concerns had been raised.

In its apology the HSE said the care she received fell short of the compassionate, caring and personalised support that she was entitled to.

It said the HSE had taken steps locally and nationally for continued service improvements, standards and safe care.

…Mr Justice Kelly said a decision had been made in 1996 to remove ‘Grace’ from the foster family. But he said that decision had been reversed by a three-person committee in the health board for reasons which remained a mystery to this day.

He said this was after representations were made by the foster parents to the then minister for health.

…He asked what extraordinary hold the foster family had over the health board officials who made the decision. He said if it was not for the fact that a commission of inquiry has been set up, he would have wanted answers to these questions.

High Court approves €6.3m settlement for Grace (RTE)

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Dr Peter Boylan speaking to Pat Kenny on Newstalk this morning

Further to the resignation of Dr Peter Boylan, former Master of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, from the hospital’s board.

Following more than a week of claims and counter-claims concerning the running of the proposed new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent’s site.

And the non-publication of any memorandum of understanding or articles of association between Holles Street and St Vincent’s.

Dr Boylan spoke at length to Pat Kenny, on Newstalk this morning.

During the interview, Dr Boylan said: “the devil of this is going to be in the detail. And the memorandums and articles of association have not been, the work has not even been proceeded yet..”

He also said he hopes “the public debate will persuade [the hospital’s shareholders/governors] that it’s a very fragile deal, flawed and, inevitably, I think will cause huge conflict in the running of the hospital”.

From the interview…

Pat Kenny: “First of all, by text on Sunday, from Rhona Mahony and from Nicky Kearns, you were asked to resign. Did that matter come up as an issue, as a motion at the board meeting last evening?”

Peter Boylan: “No, it didn’t. I don’t really want to say an awful lot more about the meeting last night because I gave an agreement that it would be confidential.”

Kenny: “Yeah. But it did come up? Like there was no great move to oust you or anything like that?”

Boylan: “Well, there was no motion put to the board that my resignation should be given.”

Kenny: “I presume you can tell us what is already in the public domain that there was a vote on the issue in question. Because we know that there is a majority on the board. How big a majority was it and how comfortable of a majority and how many dissident voices might there be?”

Boylan: “The vote was overwhelming.”

Kenny: “Overwhelming.”

Boylan: “In favour of the agreement.”

Kenny: “This leaves you, probably, a bit isolated because you had initially been a lone voice although the Lord Mayor of Dublin has added his voice. And there are two separate issues at the heart of this. One is the ethical issue which you have highlighted and then the second issue is the idea of handing over €300million of taxpayers’ money to a private entity. I’ve suggested already that, you know, they wouldn’t do it to Jimmy Sheehan from the Blackrock Clinic but they have decided to give it to St Vincent’s Healthcare because they want the synergies between the two hospitals. So, addressing both of those issues. One may have been resolved between the two boards that they think they can cobble together an agreement with all the safeguards that the minister thinks he will have in a month’s time. But the other one is a more general thing about what ministers do on our behalf with our money.”

Boylan: “Yes, you made reference there that I was a lone voice. That’s correct, more or less, on the board. But I’m not a lone voice in the community, outside, to which we have a great responsibility, to the women in particular. I’m also not a lone voice in the medical profession in that the previous master of the Coombe Hospital, Chris Fitzpatrick, and the previous master of the Rotunda, Sam Coulter-Smith. They’ve both voiced serious reservations about the governance proposed structures. So with regard to the agreement itself, there is a lot of issues with it. And the major ones are transfer of ownership of the National Maternity Hospital outright, 100% to the Religious Sisters of Charity on land that they own. The company that will run the hospital will be owned outright by the Sisters of Charity.”

Kenny: “Now, last time we spoke, you talked about the structure of the National Maternity Hospital. It’s national in name.”

Boylan: “That’s correct, yes.”

Kenny: “That’s a nice conceit to maintain, you know, but in fact it is not the centre, the national centre, like the national paediatric hospital at St. James’s will be the national centre of excellence, etc, etc, ..”

Boylan: “That’s correct.”

Kenny: “There’s excellence in all of the major maternity hospitals.”

Boylan: “That’s absolutely correct.”

Kenny: “But the structure is that there’s a board of governors who are the people in whom ownership is vested. Are they happy that their ownership is being transferred lock, stock and barrel to the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group?”

Boylan: “Well, they haven’t been asked.”

Kenny: “But how can that be legal? Unless they…”

Boylan: “I don’t know about the legality of it but there is no legal document in existence on which the governors, the owners, the shareholders of the National Maternity Hospital can vote. And the devil of this is going to be in the detail. And the memorandums and articles of association have not been, the work has not even been proceeded yet…”

Kenny: “So is it your understanding that they kind of maybe did a survey of the governors, checked them out and said, ‘will you be in favour of this thing?’. And they kind of gave them the nod. Because it is bizarre that any attempt to move ownership of a resource, whatever that might be, without the consent of the vested owners, would be bizarre?”

Boylan: “It would be bizarre and it is bizarre. I think, to be fair, that it’s likely that the governors would, the shareholders of Holles Street, probably would agree to the transfer because they would be convinced by the arguments. Now, hopefully, the public debate will persuade them that it’s a very fragile deal, flawed and, inevitably, I think will cause huge conflict in the running of the hospital. It’s been said that the nuns are not going to run the hospital, that’s absolutely correct. They’re not going to run the hospital and I have never suggested that they would run the hospital but they own the hospital, they own the company that runs it and they’ve undue representation on the board.”

Later

Kenny: “So you’ve resigned with immediate effect.”

Boylan: “With immediate effect. I can’t remain a member of a board which is so blind to the consequences of its decision to transfer sole ownership of the hospital to the Religious Sisters of Charity and so deaf to the concerns of the public which it serves.”

Kenny: “You have reiterated in your letter of resignation a number of the issues that you’ve been talking about this past couple of weeks. Remind us of what they are.”

Boylan: “Well, as I said, the hospital will be on land owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity, it’ll be 100% owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity. The company tasked with running the hospital will be owned outright by the Sisters of Charity. And to believe that… any hospital that is built on land, owned by the Catholic Church, is obliged to follow Catholic teaching and canon law, medical practices and procedures. And that was clarified by Bishop Kevin Doran and also confirmed by Vincent Twomey last weekend.”

Kenny: “But didn’t one of your successors in the job of master, Declan Keane, I think, said he had performed, I think it was, a sterilisation in his private practice in St Vincent’s.”

Boylan: “No, he performed two, not in his private practice, but some women with very complicated pregnancies where the placenta, the afterbirth, is invading the uterus, will need to have a hysterectomy but sometimes you can preserve the uterus and in those circumstances the reasonable thing and what the women would wish, usually, is that they have a sterilisation…”

Kenny: “But if you could do that in St Vincent’s, does that not suggest that they…”

Boylan: “Well, he had to get permission to do that whereas…”

Kenny: “He had to ask for permission?”

Boylan: “Yes, as a matter of courtesy, from the clinical director of the hospital. So, in the National Maternity Hospital and in hospitals without religious influence, you just do it, it’s a matter between the patient and the doctor herself, as it should be.”

Listen back in full here

Yesterday: Where’s The Memorandum Of Understanding?

How Deal Leaves Doors Open For Church Control

simonsplace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgHxqWUnyJY&feature=share

Inspired by a simpler time.

Simon’s Place Coffee Shop.

George’s Street Arcade, South Great George’s Street, Dublin 2

Ultan Mashup writes:

True. The best cheese and other sandwiches and more with real empathy, community, people and sense of place and time – can I get a shoutout for one of Dublin’s finest cafés – Simon’s Place?

Come on – it’s a seventies thing, we’re safe from Millennial Hipsterdom.

By the way, the original was spelt Marks’ Bros and not Marx Bros. But if you were there (I was), you’d know that.

FIGHT!

Simon’s Place (Facebook)

andrewscott

Andrew Scott in Handsome Devil

On the Late Late…

RTÉ Press Office writes:

Handsome Devil star Andrew Scott will join Ryan Tubridy with his Handsome Devil director John Butler. They’ll be telling viewers about the inspiring message behind their critically acclaimed movie and what the marriage equality vote meant to them.

The new Irish will be in studio as The Late Late Show celebrates some of Ireland’s latest citizens.

Journalists Owen Conlon and Stephen Breen will reveal how Christy Kinahan, from a respectable north Dublin family, ended up overseeing a global crime cartel worth an estimated €750 million.

Dancing with the Star’s Katherine Lynch chats about her life changing year and what the future holds for her after hanging up her dancing shoes. And 50 years after his death, she’ll be paying tribute to her grand-uncle, the poet Patrick Kavanagh.

Brendan Murray, Ireland’s representative for Eurovision this year, takes to the stage to perform his ballad ‘Dying to Try’ as he prepares to jet off to Kiev in Ukraine for the biggest song contest in the world. …

*flings imaginary telly licence into Grand Canal*

The Late Late Show, Friday, RTÉ One at 9.35pm.