Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2022-05-04
============================================================

Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

Undoubtedly, all the documentation, the publication of which I welcome, will be studied, scrutinised and considered very carefully. However, I raised with the Taoiseach the ownership of the land and he has responded by reminding us we are looking at a 300-year lease at a cost of €10 per year.
That begs the question as to why lease on those terms and why did the Sisters of Charity just not make a clean transaction of it and gift the land to the State. That would copper-fasten and clarify the absolute public ownership of the facility. It would give the reassurances that are necessary, not for a small minority but for wider public opinion in terms of the governance, the independence etc. of the hospital.
By the way, I accept the Taoiseach's bona fides in wishing to see this project advance. As somebody who availed of maternity services in my time in this State, I can tell the Taoiseach we all have a vested interest in seeing that advance. I am not challenging that for a moment. I am raising this issue of ownership because it is a matter of genuine concern.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-05-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:24+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-05-04