The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev John Neill, has been accused by a senior Church of Ireland figure of "playing the Protestant card" where the future of Tallaght hospital is concerned.
In a letter to The Irish Times today, the Dean of Dublin's St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy, said "it is disingenuous of the Archbishop to play the Protestant card in attempting to secure the new paediatric hospital for Tallaght." He continued that "wherever it is sited, the new hospital will presumably be a State hospital following State rather than Roman Catholic medical practice."
Dean MacCarthy was referring to comments made by Archbishop Neill at a press conference during the Church of Ireland general synod in Armagh last Wednesday that the (Protestant) ethos at Tallaght was " very dear to us". It was "inclusive and patient-centred, with no ethics committee imposing standards".
The archbishop, who is president of the hospital, continued that it would be "very serious" for Tallaght hospital if its paediatric service was removed. He felt this might happen if the new children's hospital proposed by a syndicate headed by Noel Smyth was to be built nearby.
Speaking yesterday, Dean MacCarthy said the archbishop "thinks he will get a lot of sympathy from the Government if significant pressure is brought to bear, supporting the idea that Protestants are being done down."
The dean rejected this and said a decision on the location of a new paediatric hospital should be based on objective criteria and nothing else.
