Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU) Council has lost quorum tonight, meaning that a motion on the ownership of the National Maternity Hospital was not voted on.
The motion proposed to mandate the union to “lobby and campaign for the public ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital and for it to be governed by a secular character”, which was could not be voted on.
TCDSU President Shane De Rís took questions on the motion and outlined that delaying the motion until next Council would be “too late for the women” impacted by religious ownership of the hospital.
Gender Equality Officer Aoife Grimes outlined that motion would have mandated TCDSU to support the secularisation of the new hospital’s charter, which otherwise requires a bishop and priest to sit among its leadership.
Upon its completion, it is expected that the new National Maternity Hospital will cost a total of €300 million. It is also known that the land upon which the hospital will be is to be given to St. Vincent’s Hospital Group (SVHG), which is owned by the religious group The Sisters of Charity.
Council took place this evening in the Stanley Quek theatre in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) building.
Additional reporting by Debra Daly, Finn Purdy, Ciaran Sunderland, and Niamh Lynch.
