Wow, we were not expecting that. And Simon Harris certainly wasn’t expecting that. A chance conversation he had with a resident while out canvassing in Dublin Bay South last week became national news last night.
The resident Harris met was Dr Peter Boylan, a former master of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), who has been conducting an unrelenting campaign since 2017 to prevent the hospital transferring to St Vincent’s Hospital in Elm Park.
Writing an opinion piece in the Journal yesterday Dr Boylan said he bumped into Harris who was "shepherding" James Geoghegan around Ranelagh.
"As he continued with his canvass, Simon asked me whether I thought Tallaght University Hospital would work for the new maternity hospital. As he said, the State owns the land and the hospital."
And so out of nowhere, we had a Plan B last night. Was there a suggestion the Government was thinking of Tallaght or elsewhere, or was it just Harris musing, or working out things in his own head?
Whatever the case, Dr Boylan was enthused. He is a charismatic and mercurial campaigner. And his opposition to the St Vincent’s site is not in any way veiled.
“I suggest that it is time now to put a metaphorical stake through the heart of this misconceived project,” was one of the more pungent lines from his piece.
Tallaght, of course, is State-owned. “There would need to be only minimal change in design were it to move to Tallaght which has all the requisite specialist services, is well served by public transport, and is close to the M50,” he wrote.
“The time has come to admit the impossibility of an independent State-owned maternity hospital being built at Elm Park and move to plan B,” was his concluding line.
Ah, Plan B. There it is again. You wonder had the Government come up with Plan B all by itself, or was it foisted on by the indefatigable Boylan yesterday? Certainly, as of last night, we in the The Irish Times were reporting that there was indeed a Plan B being discussed among Ministers in the event of the Government failing to resolve its issues with the St Vincent Healthcare Group (SVHG) over ownership and governance of the site.
For his part, Harris did not seem keen to add more fuel to the fire. His spokeswoman said: “They had a private discussion and the development of the national maternity hospital was discussed. Minister Harris reiterated his view and the Government’s view that the State should own the land and discussed other land the State owned in the city. As it was a private conversation, Minister Harris has no further comment to make.”
If there was a GIF accompanying that statement it would be of a guy back-pedaling furiously on a bicycle.
Politically, it’s become messy. The messages coming from Government are mixed and confusing. The “preference” is that the State owns the land. But then there is no appetite to go down the route of a compulsory purchase order, as that will take years of litigation and will cost millions of euro.
At the same time, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said twice yesterday that clinical and operational independence can be achieved without owning the land. It seems a large majority of the 100 governors at the NMH have been in favour of the move to Elm Park even with a 99-year lease. So far, the NMH itself has been silent on the controversy.
When Jennifer Bray put in queries yesterday about specific procedures, SVHG replied: “All medical procedures, in accordance with the laws of the land, are available in SVHG and terminations, tubal ligations and non-complex gender affirming surgeries have been carried out in our hospitals.”
For his part, Boylan argued in the Journal opinion piece: “The bottom line is that if the State proceeds with the development of the new National Maternity Hospital project at Elm Park, not owning the land, it will have no ability to prevent Catholic ethos from dictating services there. Once again the State will have capitulated to the Catholic Church and, once again, it will be Irish women who will suffer.”
Both can’t be right here. It would not be too difficult to go through each and every procedure at issue to see if they are, or can be, carried out in SVHG. That will be necessary to determine exactly what ethos will prevail.
And having said that there are quite a number of HSE-owned hospitals around the country (and they all State-owned of course) which provide zero termination-of-pregnancy (TOP) services, while the three voluntary hospitals in Dublin provide full TOP services. So State-owned is not necessarily a prerequisite for a full suite of services.
Now we have learned the Government may consider Tallaght, or even Connolly at Blanchardstown as alternatives. As we point out, each of the other sites have issues. And the project would have to start from scratch. You wonder how realistic the alternatives are at this stage.
Are we to see a morale-sapping return to the circular row over the National Children’s Hospital that has led to inordinate delays and an astonishingly high budget?
Politically, the Government has been all over the place on this issue with scattergun comments from Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin, Stephen Donnelly and Simon Harris (even though his was a private conversation).
Somebody needs to take control of it and start making decisions and stop making vapid comments about negotiations with stakeholders.
Best Reads
Miriam Lord weighs in on this topic in her column – nun better.
Jennifer Bray has a comprehensive Q&A explaining why the project has become such a mess.
Newton Emerson says new DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson must try to steer a way to accepting (an amended) Northern Ireland protocol while standing up to hardline loyalists. A tightrope walk through marching season.
Freya McClements reports on the first conversation between Donaldson and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Playbook
In the Dáil Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien will answer priority questions in the morning followed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will answer questions put to him by leaders of the Opposition at Noon. The Affordable Housing Bill will be debated in the Dáil as the Bill goes through second stage scrutiny.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Dr Michael Collins will speak at the Budgetary Oversight Committee on the subject of tax expenditure.
The Public Accounts Committee is looking at spending on international co-operation and controls over humanitarian assistance funding. Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs will attend.
Dr Austin O’Carroll will talk about a report on mortality among single homeless people in 2020 when he attends the Housing Committee.
The Joint Committee on Disability Matters will discuss a report calling for a better future for young people who find themselves as residents in nursing homes.
