St Philip's Hospital deal to go ahead - government

The government said this evening that the signing of the St Philip’s Hospital deal will go ahead. The private hospital will be leased for €825,000 per year for eight years with an option to buy after the third year. The purchase value after three years, inclusive of all lease payments, has been calculated on the final negotiated price of €12.4 million. The first option to buy is in the third year starting from around €11.3 million to €9.8 million on the eighth year. The government said in a statement that the agreement for the lease of the hospital has to be signed immediately because of the acute shortage of beds for rehabilitation purposes. It said that immediately following the signing of the lease agreement, it would submit the contract to the auditor-general for a full review and evaluation of the process. The report would then be presented to the Public Accounts Committee for full parliamentary scrutiny. It insisted that the rent or acquisition of property by government was not subject to Parliamentary approval. It said that at this stage, it was not purchasing but renting the property, with the purchasing option only exercisable as from the third year. If it decided to...