Sinn Féin said yesterday that the State will have to provide up to €450 million in tax breaks to developers to encourage their involvement in the construction of private hospitals on public land.
Speaking at a protest outside St James's Hospital in Dublin yesterday, the Sinn Féin leader in the Dáil, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said that plans by Tánaiste Mary Harney to allocate land at public hospitals for the development of facilities for fee-paying patients were "ill-conceived, unfair, inefficient and doomed to failure".
The Government's plans would see the development of nearly a dozen private hospitals on public lands around the country.
Around 20 Sinn Féin activists, including TDs Seán Crowe and Aengus Ó Snodaigh as well as MEP Mary Lou McDonald, joined the protest at St James's Hospital yesterday.
Other Sinn Féin demonstrations took place at Tallaght and Connolly hospitals, in Dublin; Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda; Waterford Regional; Cork University Hospital; Galway University Hospital;, Sligo General, and Letterkenny General.
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