Old hospital may be used to ease Dingle housing crisis

Kerry County Council is looking to acquire the disused Dingle hospital with a view to creating housing for seasonal tourism staff and single locals.

The large three-storey building overlooking the harbour town began life as a workhouse in the 19th century. It later became a hospital and is where the storyteller Peig Sayers died in 1958.

Closed since the west Kerry community hospital opened in 2010, there have been calls to convert it into an arts and education centre.

However, given that restaurant owners, pubs, and food businesses are unable to get specialist outside staff because of an acute shortage of accommodation in Dingle, councillors are now looking to convert the building into apartments.

West Kerry councillor Michael O’Shea (FF) has told a meeting of the county council that the lack of accommodation for staff in Dingle is now “a crisis”.

He said there is also a problem with single local people on social housing lists, some of whom had been on the lists for a decade or more.

Dingle had “a very large bachelor population” and older people on their own found it next to impossible to get social housing in Dingle, said Mr O’Shea.

“The lack of accommodation is having a massive effect on business,” he said.

Business leaders had approached him recently to try to find a solution.

Mr O’Shea suggested the old Dingle hospital be turned into self-contained apartments for seasonal staff as well as for local need.

The price of property in the area was beyond the reach of most local people and no social housing had been built in around seven years, said Mr O’Shea.

The council said it has held meetings with the HSE, which is the owner of old hospital buildings in Killarney as well as in Dingle, with a view to converting them to accommodation.

Other public lands and buildings were also being looked at, according to a written report produced for Mr O’Shea.

Dingle Oceanworld, one of Kerry’s biggest tourist attractions, has recently spoken out about how difficult it was to get accommodation for staff in Dingle.

Maire Treasa O’Shea, of the aquarium said that “there is absolutely no staff accommodation”, adding that it’s been difficult for years, but given that 2016 has been one of the busiest tourist seasons yet, the situation has worsened.

Oceanworld employee Axelle Lépée, 23 and originally from the Auvergne region of France, had searched for accommodation since February and had been staying in a B&B. Two weeks ago she finally managed to get a room.