IRELAND
The Times (UK)
Ellen Coyne
March 24 2017
The Times
A religious order that owes millions of euros in compensation for child abuse will retain ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital after it is built with more than €200 million of taxpayers’ money.
The move to increase the assets of the Religious Sisters of Charity has been described as extraordinary following the recent revelation that it still owes €3 million to the state redress scheme.
The new hospital will be built on the Elm Park site at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin. St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is run and owned by the Sisters of Charity, which has paid only €2 million of the €5 million it offered to contribute in reparations to abuse victims. Its most recent payment was in 2013.
The religious order will own the maternity hospital as well as a new independent company that has been established to guarantee corporate governance, but the HSE has said that its interests will be protected once construction is completed. The HSE said the land at the St Vincent’s campus was being made available for the new hospital at no cost to the state and that “appropriate security arrangements” would be put in place to protect state interests.
“As landowners, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group have an ownership interest in facilities built on those lands,” an HSE spokesman said. “However, the state as funder will ensure that its interests are protected through established mechanisms to ensure the long-term, ongoing provision of public maternity services.”
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