There is nothing in the lease that is an imposition on the State at all despite attempts to muddy the waters and, in my view, deliberately confuse that issue. On the broader issue, the concerns that were raised after the Mulvey deal and over a year ago have been comprehensively addressed by this Government and by the Minister, first in the constitution of the new national maternity hospital which is absolutely clear in terms of all lawfully and legally permissible services being made available; the operating licenc…

My understanding is that the chair of the St. Vincent's Healthcare Group is ready to correct the record in respect of that.

The chair is ready to correct the record in respect of what I said earlier. I have made the point. I have the correspondence, which has been published and which was sent to the chairman as well.

The Deputy obviously paid close attention to yesterday's deliberations. When doing so, she would have heard the legal representative of the St. Vincent's Healthcare Group making it clear that the State will own the land for the next 300 years. That is the reality.

We have a lease on this site for 300 years at a tenner a year.

It is as simple as that. There should be no attempts to cloud the reality of that as ownership. That is effective ownership by any yardstick. I ask the Deputies opposite to stop.

It is time to wrap this part of it up. The arguments presented by the Government on this have held up robustly, and we have strengthened the position. The original position was 99 years plus-----

-----but it has now gone to 300 years for the maternity hospital.

I am not accepting the premise on which the Deputy's first question is based - that we do not have ownership. This State does have ownership of this hospital. The State does have public ownership of this - 300 years at a tenner is effective ownership. That has been well tested over the last two weeks. The purpose of the last two weeks was to have the debate, tease the matter out and have full transparency on the publication of the documents. If you do not mind me saying so, I think many of the arguments against goi…

That is my more personal view of the situation. That is the first point. The second point is that the chairman was in no doubt as to the State's desire to have the entire site. That is communicated again in correspondence dated 26 July 2021 where the Secretary General of the Department of Health stated that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, had already reiterated his predecessor's request for St. Vincent's Healthcare Group to transfer ownership of the site to the State.

He acknowledged the clear response that the group's intention that the site would be neither transferred nor sold to the State. This has been made clear on an ongoing basis by the board. That correspondence referred to a telephone conversation indicating that a long-term lease of 299 years could be considered. That is the Government's position - that the extended lease of 299 years could be considered to address the issue of ownership, and it does by the way. Let us put away all the nonsense. Of course, it does - 3…

You cannot keep saying the opposite and try to get some credibility attached to it. The next question that the Deputy asked was that the women of Ireland do not need legal guarantees. They do need-----

Sorry, I did not interrupt. I would be grateful if you would allow me to answer the questions you asked. You suggested we feel that the women of Ireland do not need guarantees. That is not fair. We have addressed those issues through legal guarantees. The advice to Government is that those legal guarantees are watertight.

Watertight is legal advice that the Government received this morning in respect of the constitution of the hospital in the first instance, in respect of the operating licence that the HSE will be giving to the new hospital, in terms of having to ensure that all lawful services are provided-----

-----in terms of the ministerial golden share which gives the Minister the power to direct the directors to follow the implementation of the constitution-----

-----of the new hospital and also in respect of the overall ownership issue around the hospital itself.

There is no way that the lawful legally permitted services will not be provided. They will be provided.

Because the only motivation-----

It is not because I say so. It is because it is obliged within the legal framework agreed by the three hospitals that it be done.

Is the Deputy saying St. Vincent's Healthcare Group can sell the lease?