It's emerged the Health Minister raised concerns about religious orders owning hospitals back in 2014.

Protests took place in Dublin yesterday and over 73 thousand people have signed an online petition in a bid to block the Government handing ownership of the new national maternity hospital to The Sisters of Charity.

Simon Harris this week assured patients that the religious order would have no influence over the running of the facility.

But speaking about St Vincent's in Dublin three years ago, he told the Public Accounts Committee he was worried about the nuns' involvement there: