Concerns have been expressed, without any direct evidence, that the nuns will exert an influence on the proposed new maternity hospital in the future.

Pat McCann, who is also the founder of the Dalata hotel group, has arranged to meet James Menton, the chairman of St Vincent’s Hospital Group, this week “to make sure we’re all aligned on what we’re doing”.

McCann has said he will not ask for the site to be sold to the state because it is “irrelevant” who owns it.

The Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, recently said the Sisters should sell the site to the State “at the market value”.

He suggested they use the proceeds of the sale “to support the care of women in crisis pregnancy”.

However, McCann believes that as long as the State owns the hospital building, the ownership of the land is not important. “Where you have a building on a campus like St Vincent’s, it’s very common in Ireland and the UK that there are common services such as egress and car parks. The easiest way to manage that is to have a ground lease,” he said.

“The thing to watch is if there are any restrictive covenants in that lease,” he said. “There is only one: that what goes on the site is the hospital. All [medical] procedures that are legally available in the state will be available there.”