Health Minister Says Nationalising Maternity Hospital Site Would Be Costly

The Health Minister Wicklow TD Stephen Donnelly says moving the site of the new National Maternity Hospital would add years to the building process.

And despite saying in June that it was his preference that the state was either gifted the land or purchased it, he said today that fully nationalising the site at St Vincent's would cost the state a very large amount of money.

An Oireachtas committee has been debating concerns about the ownership of the site and whether a religious ethos will impact the care given on site.

Minister Donnelly now says nationalising the entire site at St Vincent's probably isn't the right approach