The Government is committed to the development of the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) planned for the St Vincent’s University Hospital Campus at Elm Park, as set out in the Programme for Government. Significant progress has been made on the capital project, with planning permission for the hospital secured in 2017 and, in 2018, the awarding of the contract for substantial enabling works.
I am committed to ensure that there is no religious ethos brought to bear in the provision of public maternity and gynaecology services which would restrict the provision of all legally permissible services in the new hospital. I will not bring any proposal to Government unless it achieves this, and in addition, safeguards the State’s investment in the new hospital.
The proposed corporate and clinical governance arrangements for the new National Maternity Hospital were set out in the Mulvey Agreement, which was finalised in 2016 following an extensive mediation process between the NMH and St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG). As the Deputy will be aware, a draft legal framework has been developed to copperfasten the clinical and operational independence of the new hospital, and to ensure the protection of the State’s investment, and it would be expected that the HSE Board would give very detailed consideration to the draft.
Work remains ongoing to finalise the legal arrangements for the project in relation to which I have engaged further with stakeholders. However, as I have made clear, I will not be making any further comment on the nature of this engagement until the process has concluded.
