Minister for Health James Reilly has defended the Government's decision not to take over the running of Mount Carmel hospital, Dublin which closes next weekend with the loss of more than 300 jobs.
Dr Reilly said in the Dáil that an extensive high-level appraisal was undertaken to assess the feasibility of taking it over by the State as a going concern, and to examine how the hospital might represent value to the State.
'Reckless trading'
But, he said, the Department of Health and the HSE "clearly came to the decision that it was not in the best interests of the health services to acquire it as a going concern". He added that the Minister for Finance "made it clear to me that had it continued trading it would be guilty of reckless trading".
The hospital was taken over by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in 2010.
He added that in 2004 there were 16 private hospital bodies and currently there are 22.
'Wonderful facility'
Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said they should compare the way Nama was allowing "this wonderful facility to be closed" with the way it "consistently shovels money into golf courses and five-star luxury hotels, thereby undercutting and undermining private family-owned hotels".
Reform Alliance TD Peter Mathews questioned why Nama would not accept an offer of €14 million for the hospital, of which it would get €6 million while the Revenue Commissioners and other creditors would get €10 million.
He said Nama wanted an extra €2 million, and by rejecting the offer, €19m would be lost to the State in the first year of closure through redundancy payments and the loss of VAT and PAYE income and €11m annually thereafter.
Reading out a letter from an employee of the hospital Mr Kelleher said the writer pointed to the €29 million turnover the hospital had last year with an accounting loss of about €1.05 million.
“With cost-saving measures in place this year the hospital was on target to deliver a break-even result in 2014 with the possibility of making a small profit,” he quoted.
Mr Mathews pointed to the hospital’s increased role in dealing with outpatient treatments which had reduced waiting lists.
