Update on the Sale of the Mount Carmel Site by Dr James Reilly Minister for Health

While I understand that the proposed sale of Mount Carmel has not been completed, I can confirm that, in the context of other potential uses for the campus, the HSE has made a bid for the buildings and land which were previously the Mount Carmel Maternity Hospital. Information relating to the proposed Mount Carmel sale or any potential property sale, if it was available to me, would be commercially sensitive and could not be divulged. Commercially sensitive information would include bid details and information used to determine the bid.

Also, I wish to repeat briefly what I said on 18 February last at the Joint Committee on Health where the closure of Mount Carmel Maternity Hospital was discussed – that there may be other potential uses for the buildings. As you will be aware, I stated then that I have a responsibility to the taxpayer to ensure that public money is used prudently and I remain firmly of the view that the purchase of Mount Carmel as a going concern, or as a going concern for other purposes, cannot be justified. To do so would unnecessarily expose the HSE and the State to all contingent liabilities and to very obvious significant financial risks.

As Mount Carmel Maternity Hospital was a private not a public hospital being sold on behalf of NAMA I am not in a position to offer a view on the financial return to the State from the sale, and I have no information on the sale of equipment.