National Maternity Hospital: Our Maternity Hospital Group Issues Challenge to Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan

Our Maternity Hospital group have written to Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, challenging him on the proposed governance and ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

Negotiations are underway regarding the establishment of a new National Maternity Hospital in Elm Park, on Dublin's south side. Unfortunately, if the land is sold, there is no guarantee that the operation of the hospital will stray from the ethos originally set out by the Mother of the Religious Sisters of Charity, Mary Aikenhead, who founded St. Vincent's Hospital in 1834.

The Sisters of Charity will hand over their interest in the land, and in the running the hospital, to a company called St. Vincent's Holdings - which is obliged to "uphold the values and visions of Mother Mary Aikenhead." The healthcare being offered to women and the non-binary/trans community will remain compromised as a result.

Under law, the NMH can legally carry out terminations, subject to the provisions of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Yet abortion, sterilisation, assisted fertility and other procedures which go against Aikenhead's "ethos" are still intensely difficult or impossible to access.

In an email statement to Minister Eamon Ryan, Jo Tully pressed the Green Party leader on recent "guarantees" that are said to make 'all legally permissible medical procedures' available in the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH).

"As the State has not managed to convince nine of its nineteen existing maternity hospitals to provide abortion services almost four years after we repealed the Eighth Amendment, we have grave doubts about such assurances," Jo Tully said in the letter. "The only way to copper-fasten availability and ease of accessibility of a full suite of reproductive healthcare – which must include abortion, sterilisation, contraception, gender affirmation procedures and assisted fertility - is for the State to own the new hospital, including the site on which it is built."

The Chair also queried the Minister for Communications, the Environment and Climate on the environmental impact of the new building.

"It is imperative that our flagship new National Maternity Hospital conforms with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which requires all new buildings from 2021 on to be nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB)," she wrote.

Critically, Tully noted that much of the Repeal grassroots groups voted Green in the 2020 General Election.

Read the statement from Jo Tully, Campaign Chair of Our Maternity Hospital Group, in full below:
________________________________________

To: Eamon Ryan

cc: Green Party Representatives

bcc: Media Organisations

Re: New National Maternity Hospital

Dear Minister Ryan,

As you know, the Department of Health is negotiating with St Vincent’s Hospital Group (SVHG) and the National Maternity Hospital on the proposed governance and ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital. The Mulvey Agreement, negotiated in 2016, has been touted as a mechanism to protect the State’s investment and the public interest in these negotiations. Obviously, as no more than a contract between two private companies which establishes a third private company – effectively the lay successor to the Religious Sisters of Charity at Elm Park, it can do no such thing, talk of “golden shares” notwithstanding.

In recent days, amid suggestions of a complex deal proposed by SVHG, we have heard of mooted “guarantees” that all legally permissible medical procedures will be available in the new hospital. As the State has not managed to convince nine of its nineteen existing maternity hospitals to provide abortion services almost four years after we repealed the Eighth Amendment, we have grave doubts about such assurances. The only way to copper-fasten availability and ease of accessibility of a full suite of reproductive healthcare – which must include abortion, sterilisation, contraception, gender affirmation procedures and assisted fertility - is for the State to own the new hospital, including the site on which it is built.

Furthermore, in light of continuing concerns about climate change and recent announcements on retro-fitting of private homes we would suggest that the construction of a publicly funded hospital in the 21st Century is not simply an opportunity to show off the very best of green building, but it is also imperative that our flagship new National Maternity Hospital conforms with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which requires all new buildings from 2021 on to be nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB). Any deviation from this must surely be seen not as a derogation but as a dereliction of duty by a Green-influenced government.

The Green Party received significant electoral support from Repeal voters. This constituency stands firmly for the new National Maternity Hospital to be public and secular. Their voice matters and must be respected.

We call on you to state unequivocally that the Green Party will vote against any 'agreement' that is not for a public hospital owned and run by the State.

Yours Sincerely,

Jo Tully (Campaign Chair)

The National Maternity Hospital controversy is dealt with in an editorial by Hot Press editor Niall Stokes in the new issue of Hot Press, out tomorrow with The Pillow Queens on the front cover: