The ownership and governance arrangements for the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) are fraught with risk for future generations of women in Ireland. The board structure of the new hospital makes it liable to capture and control by the 3/3/3 membership structure.
The NMH will have minority representation of only three out of nine on its own board, and one of its directors is limited to chairing its own board for a maximum three out of nine years.
The three St Vincent’s Hospital Group (SVHG) directors are committed to the “continuance of the fulfilment” of the evidently Catholic mission of the Venerable Mary Aikenhead, the founder of the Religious Sisters of Charity who is well advanced in the process of becoming a saint in the Catholic Church. One of these directors too will chair the NMH board for three out of every nine years.
Minister Donnelly claims he can guarantee that his successors over the next 299 years will not appoint three anti-choice members who could combine with the three SVHG members to form a 6:3 anti-choice majority. There is no need to speculate that such a situation might arise in fifty or a hundred years.
Memories are clear of the infamous picture of the majority of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party just four years ago — women to the forefront — holding up “Love Both” posters; while men in the background all affirm their anti-choice position.
In a final blow for NMH board independence, one of the ministerial nominees will chair the board for three out of every nine years.
The global pushback on women’s reproductive rights is constant.
Majorities on controlling boards matter.
Just look at how a majority anti-choice Supreme Court in the USA is poised to overturn Roe v Wade.
Problems with the NMH relocation plan began can be traced back to a letter written by then Master, Dr Rhona Mahony, and Deputy Chair Mr Nicholas Kearns to Kieran Mulvey in September 2016.
Problems with the NMH relocation plan began can be traced back to a letter written by then Master, Dr Rhona Mahony, and Deputy Chair Mr Nicholas Kearns to Kieran Mulvey in September 2016.
“We agree that the ownership of what is now the NMH will transfer to the ownership of SVHG, a private company owned by the Sisters of Charity”.
Simon Harris, then Minister for Health, enthusiastically embraced this plan in the Mulvey report
Simon Harris, then Minister for Health, enthusiastically embraced this plan in the Mulvey report, apparently untroubled by the history of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland and seeing no possible risk in a Catholic religious order owning the State’s flagship maternity hospital.
When the predictable public uproar ensued, five years of complicated and secretive legal manoeuvres commenced.
The Sisters announced they were departing healthcare. Not true, they were gifting their land to their successor private company, St Vincent’s Holdings.
The Sisters announced they were departing healthcare – a plan in the works for several years before May 2017 – and were “gifting lands worth €200 million to the People of Ireland”.
Not true, they were gifting their land to their successor private company, St Vincent’s Holdings.
They then tried to claim that they did not need Vatican permission for the shareholding transfer. Not true either.
They then tried to claim that uniquely among Catholic religious orders they did not need Vatican permission for their shareholding transfer.
Not true either.
Two more years passed while the machinery in Rome considered the Sisters’ petition. In Ireland, a dizzying number of legal documents whizzed between top law firms as the State’s attempt to dig itself out the hole it had created for itself became increasingly labyrinthine and Byzantine.
Following correspondence between the Sisters, the Irish Catholic hierarchy, the Papal Nuncio, and the Vatican, conditional permission was granted in 2020 for the creation of St Vincent’s Holdings. Two further years passed while the civil law process got underway.
In a spectacular failure of due diligence, that correspondence has never been seen by the Government who have now committed to spending a billion euros
In a spectacular failure of due diligence, that correspondence has never been seen by the Government who have now committed to spending a billion euros, and probably more, on a new hospital whose operating company NMH DAC will be owned by St Vincent’s Holdings – the Sisters’ Vatican-approved successor.
Only sustained opposition and public pressure forced the release of some of the tangled web of legal documentation following failure to approve Minister Donnelly’s Memo to Cabinet two weeks ago.
Contradictory “definitions” were put forward about the term “clinically appropriate” including one risible proposition that it was to ensure NMH clinicians didn’t indulge in a spot of brain surgery when they were supposed to be doing a caesarian section.
In a new twist, fresh consternation arose about the term “clinically appropriate” in the documents. Taken by surprise, different and contradictory “definitions” were put forward, including one risible proposition that it was to ensure NMH clinicians didn’t indulge in a spot of brain surgery when they were supposed to be doing a caesarian section.
Doctors such as Professor Louise Kenny and myself were clear that these words make the provision of legally permissible services dependent on the clinical decision of a doctor rather than the request of woman on a case-by-case basis. They remove patient autonomy.
Nothing has changed since the Chairman of SVHG, Mr James Menton made clear in May 2017 that the project “will only proceed on the basis of existing agreements that give ownership and control of the new hospital to St Vincent’s Healthcare Group” Irish Times May 30 2017 .
His objective has been wholly achieved.
Vatican/Vested interests 10: Women of Ireland 0.
And the Government, as we now know, has never been on the pitch.
Dr Peter Boylan is a retired Irish consultant obstetrician, and former master of the National Maternity Hospital
