General

After an unedifying week marked by an unrelenting stream of propaganda following the unexpected deferral of the Cabinet decision, yesterday’s poll in the Sunday Independent shows that the plurality of respondents (excluding ‘uncertains’), 45 per cent, believe there will be religious interference in the new hospital. Predictably, the role of offshore intermediaries, Stembridge Ltd and Porema Ltd, in St Vincent’s Holdings received scant attention, despite the association of these companies with over 200,000 offshore entities named in the Panama Papers. Documents released by the HSE earlier this week bear out the global ambitions of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. Under the constitution of the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park, Dublin 4, the company is empowered to carry on its business in “any part of the world”. The government has finally published what purports to be “a full set of legal documents” in connection with the State’s proposed investment in the new facility. Missing maps and unattached schedules leave the bundle incomplete. Even more concerning is the omission of documents that define St Vincent’s control over the new facility and enshrine its Catholic ethos.   The public-private mix The dysfunctional public-private mix in our publicly funded ‘voluntary’ hospitals will deepen if the government signs off on these plans. As many as 40 per cent of  Holles St Hospital consultants work in St Vincent’s hospitals. The new maternity hospital incorporates five private-practice suites (in defiance of Sláintecare principles). Consultant obstetricians average €500,000 per annum per head in private obstetric fees alone (not counting private income from gynaecology). St Vincent’s Healthcare Group has a history of being liberal, if not lax, in adhering to public pay guidelines. The Group is unlikely therefore to enforce the existing cap on private practice. Proposed ownership structure A large majority of people, 60 per cent, are opposed to the proposed ownership structure for the new facility, as the Sunday Independent poll shows. The National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park is to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. Wholly-owned subsidiaries are wholly-controlled by their parent companies. The new hospital company has two parents: St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of St Vincent’s Holdings. Both companies are successor bodies to the Religious Sisters of Charity. Their constitutions have been omitted from the ‘legal framework’, for some unfathomable reason. The lease published last week shows that the nuns’ company, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, will continue to own the lands and the hospitals vested in it by the congregation. These assets will also be owned by St Vincent’s Holdings. Why St Vincent’s Group needed a second ownership vehicle is unclear.   The lease also shows that St Vincent’s Healthcare Group will own the buildings to be built on the land that it owns. The rent, set at €850,000 per annum — abated to €10 for observing six conditions — is being used as a mechanism of control. Power and control Not content with being the owner of the land and the landlord to a tenant State, St Vincent’s Group has also defined itself as a member of the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park, of which it is the 99-per-cent owner. It is also the co-holder of the operating licence. This licence, which is shared opaquely with the new hospital company, further enables the company to control the hospital activities and effectively vitiates the ownership that would otherwise attach to a 299-year lease. Under the amended constitution of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, the new maternity hospital company will be just another Vincent’s hospital, to be managed in exactly the same way as Vincent’s existing hospitals. The Group’s powers extend to healthcare policy-making, supervision, determining financial funding, laying down plans, procedures, rules and regulations, discipline, education, patient care, patient records and employing medical staff, including consultants (paras 4.1-4.8).   The golden share The much-touted golden share of the Minister for Health in the new hospital company grants certain veto rights over decisions in relation to changes in company ownership. However, no golden share can override the 100-per-cent subsidiary-status of the company. The State’s is unable to compel voluntary hospitals to do anything they are disinclined to do. Holles Street Hospital, for example, won its High Court challenge to Harris (then Minister for Health) preventing him from carrying out an inquiry into the death of Malak Thawley. Although the Department of Health has claimed that the Minister has the power to  ensure that all legally permissible services will be provided in the new facility, Minister Simon Harris, for example,  must be painfully aware of the State’s inability to compel voluntary hospitals to do anything they are disinclined to do. Holles Street Hospital, for example, won its High Court challenge to Harris (then Minister for Health) preventing him from carrying out an inquiry into the death of Malak Thawley. She died in 2016 due to what was described as ‘a cascade of negligence’ during routine surgery there for an ectopic pregnancy. Ethos Rome set conditions to the transfer of the nuns’ assets  into their new vehicle. Communications between the congregation and the Vatican remain undisclosed, with the exception of a letter to the order from Rome setting out these legal terms. One key condition is the avoidance of “harm to Church teaching”. Despite the oft-repeated claims of ‘independence’, there is “an ongoing chain of connection” between the new holding company and the Religious Sisters of Charity. The directors of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group are clerical appointees. The board nominated three former directors of the Group (also clerical appointees), as directors of St Vincent’s Holdings. The Main Object of both constitutions ties the patient care to ethical compliance. St Vincent’s hospitals have never provided procedures prohibited by the Church, such as tubal ligation and vasectomy. The constitution of the holding company commits it to continuing the “mission” of Mary Aikenhead, who is named as the founder of the order. Leasing arrangements (para 5.11) and employment terms (para 5.8) may be employed to further the Main Object. A crucial new phrase, “clinically appropriate”, recurs in the just released documents. Within a Catholic ethos, abortion is considered

  Number 17 Gilford Park , Sandymount, in Dublin 4  is one semi-detached half of a structure adjoining number 15 which is in registered in the ownership of a Mr Anthony Duffy. The sale of No 17 went through in the second half of 2021 for €960,000 . It was sold to Caroline Barron and her husband Stefan Hyde who is the brother of Paul Hyde. Paul Hyde is the deputy chairman of An Bord Pleanála, the planning appeals board. Caroline Barron and Stefan Hyde In 2021 planning permission was sought for “an extension” of No 17 around the back and also that a side garage and a concrete coal bunker were to be demolished only: “Demolition and removal of sheds, garage and outhouses, and construction of roof extensions, elevation alterations and attic conversion”. This was misleading as wide-scale demolition of the house at No 17 was envisaged. There was a successful appeal, by Caroline Barron not her husband Mr Hyde,  of the original City Council decision to limit the size of the extension and this appeal was granted. In disagreeing with its own inspector’s recommendation on the master bedroom, the board “considered that the proposed development would not be overbearing to an extent that would injure the amenities of the neighbouring property”, according to the An Bord Pleanála order. Scandalously, as reported today by the Ditch website  https://www.ontheditch.com/abp-deputy-chair-granted-permission-brothers-controversial-development/, one of the two names on the decision on the ultimate permission was Paul Hyde’s. The whole house at No 17, save for the facade , was demolished in contravention of the planning permission sought and granted. Not only was the building demolished but the foundations were removed and new ones up to 2 metres in depth were dug to create extra space leaving Mr Duffy’s house on what appears like a sort of ledge. Some of the walls that were demolished provided support for Duffy’s house and this has, according to expert reports, led to damage to his house which would clearly cost a six-figure Euro sum to redress. Records show that Mr Duffy complained to Dublin City Council.  They were slow to come out due to “Covid” etc and when they did they indicated that the terms of the planning permission had been breached but that having spoken (only) to representatives of Stefan Hyde and Caroline Barron they were satisfied that no further action was necessary or would be taken . Village understands they never spoke to Mr Duffy less still expressed any interest or concern about damage to his house. The High Court record shows that Duffy has initiated proceedings himself against  Caroline Barron and Stefan Hyde. So the ruse appears to have worked to date as building is ongoing and despite the legal proceedings there has been no basis on which anyone can contest the substance of the Bord Pleanála decision itself nor the inevitable  disturbances that have ensued – despite the original inaccurate description of the proposed development as “an extension” . Meanwhile, Ms Barron and Mr Hyde are ploughing ahead . Whether the house will, in fact, be occupied as a family home or sold when completed is unknown . The size of the house would make it one of the largest semi ds on the road (2400 sq feet). Effectively by digging down almost 2 metres and also using an attic extension the house will be converted into a de facto three-storey dwelling. The case shows up the shortcomings of the whole planning process which are well known to those in the building and planning businesses –  you can get away with seeking to do something like an “extension” to which no reasonable neighbour would object, then, without warning, knock down the gutds of the structure, safe in the knowledge that even if anyone bothers to report it to the relevant authority, in this case, Dublin City Council ,  they probably will do absolutely NOTHING about it. Stefan Hyde is a founding partner of Maurice Johnson and Partners, Fire Engineers and Access Consultants. His company biography boasts that that he has been “involved” with the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork – where Paul Hyde was a board member and audit committee member, 2012-14. Stefan, like Paul, is an accomplished yachtsman. Stefan is a previous Round Ireland Yacht race winner, All Ireland Sailing Champion, and Student Yachting World Champion. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney and Paul Hyde of course were at school in PBC Cork together,  co-owned a yacht and competed in several events as a team.  Stefan was at least as accomplished and competed at events including Sovereign’s Cup week at Kinsale.  He came third at the IRC National Championship in 2005.  The Hydes’ father, Stephen, has donated at least twice to Coveney’s election campaigns, giving €2,500 in advance of the 2007 general election. Stephen and his wife have been members of Fine Gael in Cork.  Of course no wrongdoing can be, or is,  imputed to either of the boys’ parents. So much can not be said of their sons.      

NAMA In 2009 I was one of four Sinn Féin TDs in the Dáil when NAMA was set up. Ireland’s ‘bad bank’ was characterised then and since, by some, as the scam of the century because it would bailout billionaire developers while at the same time many ordinary people would get evicted from their homes. What was worse is that, despite public monies being involved, the public had only limited access to information about its goings on: how much a billionaire received from NAMA, what discounts it gave away on the sale of land and properties etc. Project Jewel This leads us to Moore Street and to the NAMA portfolio aptly named Project Jewel, the largest property portfolio NAMA would offload, which included a property-holding consisting of a quarter of Dublin’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street; a large portion of Henry Street; the vast bulk of Moore Street, Moore Lane, and Henry Place; a section of Parnell Street; and 50% of the Ilac Shopping Centre. Project Jewel – including also 50% of the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords, County Dublin; Dundrum Town Centre; and the old Dundrum Shopping Centre – was put up for tender in 2015[1]. Sale to Hammerson The Project Jewel sale to British shopping centres’ management and development company, Hammerson, was agreed in 2016 [2]. It was finalised in the summer of 2017 [3], under the watchful eye of Nama’s then Head of Assets Recovery, Connor Owens [4]. In 2015, before he became Head of Assets Recovery, Owens had also been, as Senior Divisional Manager for Project Jewel’s tender, the NAMA person overseeing the process [5]. That Project Jewel was a steal at the price paid for it was demonstrated within months when Hammerson sought to refinance one part of the full portfolio, Dundrum Town Centre for €1.5 billion – just shy of what it had paid for the whole package [6]. If such a gain had been made across the whole portfolio, Hammerson would have been sold €6 billion worth of property by a state company for €1.85 billion – with the state losing out on what would have been a gain to Hammerson and its partners of €4.15 billion. Nama obviously believed it was getting the best deal possible, and there is no suggestion that anything illegal or untoward occurred in relation to this portfolio sale. I nevertheless believe that, given the scale of Project Jewel, a greater price would have been achievable for Nama had the property bundle been broken up into single sites. Such a strategy would probably have attracted more interest from smaller bidders otherwise scared off by the scale of the offering. A short four years after selling NAMA’s biggest asset to Hammerson for that €1.85 billion, Connor Owens would be back in charge of the Project Jewel portfolio, this time as Hammerson Ireland’s CEO [7]. High Court judgment stymies planning application for moment A 2016 High Court case resulted in the Moore Street area becoming a National Monument. A consequence of that judgment was the blocking of a live planning application which would have destroyed much of this heritage site. Establishment of Advisory Groups to implement imperatives of High Court decision The judgment was appealed and overturned in 2018 by the Court of Appeal[8]. However, against the backdrop of the High Court decision, an advisory group had been set up[9] to “seek a positive way forward” for the area, with the then-Minister Heather Humphreys selecting certain campaigners, 1916 relatives and Moore Street market traders to be members alongside Councillors, TDs and senators. That group carried out its work and submitted ‘The Moore Street Report – Securing History’ to Minister Humphreys on 29 March 2017. A second group, ‘the Moore Street Advisory Group’, was set up on 25 May 2017, and on 31 July 2019 concluded its deliberations with the publication of its report by the Minister. I chaired one of this group’s sub-committees, the Surveys Subgroup, after Peadar Tóibín left Sinn Féin in 2018 to set up his own party. After the 2020 general election the new Junior Minister for Heritage Malcolm Noonan set up ‘the Moore Street Minister’s Advisory Group’, the third such advisory group. Third advisory group reports This group began considerations in December 2020. It was set an ambitious target to report in just over three months, at Easter 2021, but in fact ‘reported’ to the Minister a month late on 5 May 2021. Version submitted to Minister was not that which had been agreed The version submitted to the Minister and published by him was not that which was agreed by the membership of the group. I and others challenged passages contained in it which were clearly favourable towards Dublin Central, the development being proposed by Hammerson[10]. Given the original stated positions of the members of the group on Dublin Central, voting on the report or aspects of the report was likely to be tight, so any change could shift the thrust of the final report. In the final deliberations on the group’s report to Minister Noonan, the traders absented themselves, which they may have felt was better than voting for the report but given what emerged since was unfair on the rest of the advisory group membership as we were in the dark about the wheeling and dealing that had gone on in the background of our meetings. Such knowledge might have persuaded some who were inclined one way to vote the other way. Unfortunately, that report may well be material to the Bord Pleanála decisions that are awaited, that will determine the future of the site, referred to by the High Court as the Moore Street Battlefield Area. So why did the report not represent what I thought had been agreed? Inferring what happened I will set out, without naming names, what I have been told or pieced together as well as what is already in the public domain concerning Moore St and voting on its advisory group [11]. Garda Investigation Certainly a Garda investigation could better establish the reality of what is not yet

About ten years ago I attended a poetry reading, at a location I will not disclose here, in a vast hotel conference room. One of the poets was a nearly great poet, the other not so much. One was wearing a tweed jacket, or at least my memory chooses to dress them in tweed; the other was wearing a pair of curtains which I think my Mother would have liked for her big sitting room window. The room was full of people nodding gravely. A few of the audience were nodding off to sleep. Others were trying not to. It was a most worthy gathering, and I am grateful to the Irish government for paying my air fare and hotel bill.   The poetry readings I have co-organised with my wife Susan via Over The Edge literary events in Galway for the past two decades are nothing like this. For several years we organised successful Friday night poetry readings in a wine bar above a cheese shop. The room, I’m reliably informed, smelled of sweaty cheese, a smell to which I think I must have become immune because I ceased to notice it.   If our poetry readings don’t fill your nostrils with the smell of the bluer varieties of French cheeses, the fabulously uncomfortable plastic chairs in Westside Library, where we annually partner with Westside Arts Festival to organise Ireland’s largest literary open-mic, will at least make sure you stay awake. For many years we used to take visiting poets and writers to our local Turkish burger-and-kebab house after readings where I would usually dine on the most excellent curried chips. These days, for health reasons, I have to settle for Champagne and hors d’oeuvres at the House Hotel because the medication I am on for my dodgy lungs clashes unpleasantly with the cheaper varieties of food and alcohol. It’s a sacrifice. But one I’m prepared to make in the interests of literature.   Now don’t get me wrong, while the poetry readings we organise do aim to at all times keep our audience awake, they are not pseudo-Beatnik amateur hour affairs which are all about the MC’s male member. We have had many leading Irish poets and fiction writers take part in our events: Medbh McGuckian, Denis O’Driscoll, Colette Bryce, Eamon Grennan, Ken Bruen, Claire Kilroy, and Kevin Barry to name just a few. The radical thing we do, though, which neither the pseudo-Beatniks nor the crowd in that aforementioned giant hotel conference room appear to be interested in, is we platform raw new writers alongside the very established.   If Over The Edge was a religious rather than a literary movement, we would be some offshoot of the Quakers; everyone gets to have their moment, their say.   The crowd nodding off to sleep in that hotel conference room full of tweed and carpets call to mind the Catholic Mass, with its absurd hierarchies, peculiar outfits, and me there in the midst of it all trying not to smirk.   One of the featured readers at a recent Over The Edge: Open Reading is a young woman, just turned twenty, who first joined one of my poetry workshops four years ago while she was recovering from having deliberately jumped off a motorway bridge. She vanished for a bit after that term of workshops and then emailed me during the lockdown to ask if we could meet to discuss her poetry – she had been writing again, she said.   I said of course, when the Covid restrictions allowed, we must meet for coffee and she must bring some copies of her new poems. She said this wouldn’t be possible as she was only allowed out of the psychiatric unit at University Hospital Galway, where she was detained having almost died of an eating disorder, for half an hour each day, and she was not allowed, by order of court, to leave the hospital grounds. All of this is in the public domain, and she has written about her experiences.   I said I would come and meet her in the hospital grounds. We met, and sat on the grass outside the door of the psychiatric unit and discussed her new poems while two psychiatric nurses watched us from the door. One of the nurses said to her as I approached: “Yer man looks like a poet alright”.   I gave her some editing suggestions and came up with a few places where she might submit her poems for publication. She was a featured reader alongside a poet who has published three collections, and did great. Everyone was talking about her reading afterwards. She read for the same fifteen minutes Denis O’Driscoll and Medbh McGuckian read for.   Of course it is not because I am a good person that I organise literary readings. I do so because I am a poet myself. And also because I have a compulsive need to change things for what, I think, is the better.   Many poets who go into organising/“curating” events or become publishers tend in time to cease to really be active poets. I knew I had avoided this fate, and made it as a poet when, in 2013, I gave a reading on the floor of the AWP Conference in Boston; then headed to Amherst, Massachusetts to do another reading there.   While in Amherst I rather embarrassingly developed a pretty grossly distended testicle, which was an offshoot of a kidney infection I got because of the autoimmune disease I am beset with. I carried my swollen testicle onto a bus from Amherst to Springfield, Massachusetts then onto another bus to Boston and then put it on a plane to Dublin, along of course with the rest of me. Back in Galway, having visited a doctor and shown her the nature of my problem, I then did another poetry reading that evening, as I was scheduled to do, and then immediately took my testicle home to rest