The Master of the Rotunda Hospital has said maternity hospitals should maintain their own corporate governance when they are moved onto the campuses of other hospitals in the coming years.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Professor Fergal Malone said the current mastership system ensures resources for mothers and babies are ring fenced and constantly reviewed.
The mastership model is a term given to the team management system which "balances clinical, administrative and financial function, reporting to a dedicated board".
Prof Malone and the masters of the Coombe and the National Maternity Hospital have said they are in favour of maternity hospitals maintaining corporate independence when moved onto the campuses of other hospitals in the coming years.
There is an ongoing row over the planned relocation of the National Maternity Hospital to the grounds at St Vincent's Hospital.
The Rotunda and the Coombe are also due to move onto the campuses at Connolly Hospital and St James's Hospital respectively.
In a strongly-worded letter, the three masters said they are "strongly of the view that for tertiary maternity and neonatal services the mastership model is the appropriate model operating in the best interest of women and infants".
Prof Malone said he is very concerned that this system is not diluted in any new governance model.
He said if a maternity hospital on the same campus as an adult general hospital is competing for the same resources, he would be concerned that "when push comes to shove, same of the resources that might otherwise come to mothers and babies will be lost".
He also said the mastership model does not let "religious ethos impact in any way, shape or form on our decisions; it's all about supporting the clinical needs of patients."
