Labour calls for health minister to publish NMH deal with Sisters of Charity
Health Minister Simon Harris has been urged to "publish all the deals and all the side deals" with a religious order involved in the mother and baby homes scandal over the building of the new national maternity hospital,
Labour TD and former tánaiste Joan Burton called for the immediate move as she lashed out at Mr Harris being "hapless, helpless and hopeless" over his response to what happened and for failing the women of Ireland.
In a hard-hitting speech during an emergency debate on three motions in response to last night's revelations the Sisters of Charity are considering scrapping the national maternity hospital plan, Ms Burton said "secret deals" with the church have no role to play in modern Ireland.
Warning public trust has been shattered by what has emerged this week, she said no one has been re-assured by the Government's response and that what happens now will be central to a deal "that will last the next 100 years".
"We have a history of secret deals with the church in this country. Remember the [controversial 2002 redress scheme] deal with Michael Woods and Bertie Ahern. Who came off best in that.
"The Minister has been hapless, helpless and hopeless. This is not good enough. Publish the deal, all the deals and all the side deals," she said.
Her view was repeated by Labour's health spokesperson Alan Kelly, who said the current situation is a "disgrace" and "GUBU" - a reference to the phrase "grotesque, unbelievable bizarre and unprecedented" used to describe a series of Irish political scandals in the 1980s.
Mr Kelly said it is wrong that a maternity hospital would be "handed over" to a religious order involved in the abuse of women and babies.
"In any other western society can you imagine this happening? But this is happening, in Ireland in 2017," he said.
Mr Kelly said the religious order's ongoing failure to repay millions or euro owed to abuse victims as part of the controversial 2002 redress scheme is not unrelated from the national maternity hospital scandal as it "shows what they really thought, what they really think".
Asking "where are the Independent ministers on this", he said Ireland "cannot allow this to happen, and we will not allow this to happen".
"The religious order is considering reviewing the deal. Fine. Compulsory purchase it," he said, adding he found it "bizarre" that Mr Harris is defending the deal now as he was heavily critical of the religious order in 2014 during a Dáil public accounts committee meeting which heard it was using St Vincent's public hospital as collateral on other projects.
During the same debate Labour Women chair Sinead Ahern said religious orders must have no involvement in the new national maternity hospital, and reminded delegates of Savita Halappanavar, saying doctors "may be afraid of giving full medical records because there's a statue of the virgin Mary there".
All three emergency motions were passed unanimously by Labour's delegates. They included:
- conference rejects the proposed ownership and governance arrangements of the national maternity hospital on St Vincent’s campus as unsatisfactory and unacceptable (Dublin West, Mulhuddart branch)
- conference calls on the government to immediately reverse this decision and to ensure secular independent state ownership and management of our national maternity hospital and all further stage funded healthcare infrastructure (Labour women)
- conference moves that the entire St Vincent's site and the folio of properties currently owned by the St Vincent's healthcare group be taken into public ownership (Tipperary, Ardarra/D O’Donnell branch)
