Theirs To ‘Gift’

at

F

This afternoon.

The National Maternity Hospital may be built on State-owned lands following a decision of the Vatican to hand the lands at the St Vincent’s site over to St Vincents Holdings CLG.

Via The Sisters of Charity:

“Today, marks the final movement towards completion of all legal, financial and regulatory matters involved in the transfer of the Sisters’ 186-year involvement in the hospital.

In line with Canon Law, formal approval for the decision to complete the transfer of ownership was requested and was received. “

This, however, does not constitute public ownership of the site.

Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortallsaid today’s development should be seen as the ‘first stage’ in a process where SVH CLG transfer ownership of the site to the State.

Ms Shorthall said:

“The new National Maternity Hospital is badly needed and it is regrettable that it is taking so long to get to a situation where this much needed project can proceed. Today’s announcement can only be seen as stage one of a process where the State can legally own this site and stage two must entail the ownership of the site transferring to State.

We also need assurances that the governance structure of the new Maternity Hospital will be fully independent and separate to the corporate structure of St Vincent’s Holdings CLG. The governance structure proposed in the Mulvey report does not provide that independence.

“It has always been patently clear that there could not be full public ownership of a hospital that was on privately owned grounds – whether religious or otherwise – and that such ownership would have significant implications for both the ethos of the hospital and the protection of the public purse.

It would be a serious error for the Government to contemplate the handing over this valuable asset and would repeat the mistakes of the past where taxpayer funded health and education infrastructure is gifted to private interests.”

Meanwhile, could  savings be passed on to the victims of the Sisters of Charity?

Sisters of Charity ‘gift’ St Vincent’s to State (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

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24 thoughts on “Theirs To ‘Gift’

  1. NobleLocks

    I see it more of a reclamation of what was rightfully ours and stolen by that deeply entitled cult

  2. V-19

    Gift my ಠ_ಠ

    Typical Religious Order attempt to put us under compliment to them
    GO FYs girls

    Now where’s the rest of it

  3. Cian

    Is this all the lands at Vicnents? or just the bit that the Maternity hospital will be built on??

    1. Cian

      It seems like it is the whole hospital group (Vincent’s Public & private and St Micheals) but it being transferred into a charity that will still own and run the hospitals. So its not quite “state owned land”.

  4. phil

    There must be a sting in the tail, not quite sure where, but i’ll bet it’s there somewhere …

  5. newsjustin

    Your link in the last paragraph, Bodger, links to a story about a different order of nuns. Do you mean what the State saves in not having to buy a site? Was buying a site ever on the cards though?

    This is good news, I guess. Bad that the NMH will be carrying out abortions, but that’s a different debate.

    (Let me be the first to predict, though, that the decision will generate a lot of pushback for the Vatican along the lines of, “why are you now facilitating abortions in Ireland.” And it will be international criticism…but all internal to the church.)

    1. millie in quarantine

      With respect, newsjustin, what have the Vatican to do with us? We are a nation independent of any church. Gone are the days where Ireland identified as ‘a Catholic country’. Increasingly, we are a secular state, where a greater proportion of our citizens identify as having a different religion to Catholicism or no religion at all, and that is reflected in changing societal values.

      1. newsjustin

        Sorry, it wasn’t clear in the excerpt above, but in the RTE report. The transfer of the land had to be approved explicitly by the Vatican, with the support of the Archbishop of Dublin. Even though the land was belonging to the Sisters of Charity.

        This transfer only happened because the Vatican allowed it. Hence my prediction that they’ll be criticised in some quarters for it.

        Edit – actually Bodger says it in the first paragraph

        1. millie in quarantine

          Ah thanks for the clarification. Wasn’t immediately clear to me, but I agree – it makes sense.

  6. Jake38

    Ms Shortall is generally wrong about most things related to healthcare, but she’s right about this.

    1. Ghost of Yep

      If you’re refering to Slaintecare then everyone is wrong as it seems to have support across the main parties. What else is she wrong about?….Actually, who is right about it?

      1. Jake38

        Slaintecare will reduce the entire healthcare system to the level of mediocrity currently enjoyed by the worst HSE run hospitals.

        1. Ghost of Yep

          Not sure how you came to that conclusion but if you have something that would make me think the same i’d be willing to look at it.

          Personally I feel any cross party agreement and commitment to improve the health service is the right step and takes any progress needed out of the election cycle which has done nothing but harm in the last few decades.

  7. paul

    so the Vatican can step in on international matters. Maybe those purse strings aren’t so tightly tied as was previously thought.

  8. bs

    “canon law” i.e. the policy of a private organisation which does not trump actual, common or contractual law

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