Ambitious housing plans are being prepared for a former asylum building on the northside of Cork city which has been boarded up since it was gutted in a suspected arson attack just over two years ago.

The State must use the new €1.25bn Land Development Agency to finally unlock the potential of Cork’s docklands, which have capacity for some 15,000 homes.

The former St Kevin’s Asylum, and over 14 acres of zoned land, has finally been placed on the market for sale by the HSE, with a €2.95 million price guide via agents Lisney, who say it has clear residential development potential.

A “masterplan” is to be prepared to develop a former psychiatric hospital campus in Cork City after a disused unit was gutted in a suspected arson attack.

The HSE has moved to reassure those concerned about derelict, or mostly unused, properties it owns that steps are being taken to ensure they do not meet the same fate as the St Kevin’s facility in Cork which was gutted by fire this week.

The HSE has said an initial assessment of the St Kevin’s facility in Cork has found it to be “salvageable” while investigating gardaí hope to receive a forensic report on the cause of the fire there in the coming days.

There was great potential in the iconic St Kevin’s asylum, writes Kieran McCarthy.

Five units of the Cork City Fire Brigade were needed to tackle a large blaze at the old St Kevin’s unit at the former Our Lady’s Hospital site in Shanakiel.

Six months into his chairmanship of the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC), Simon Moroney describes his role as “challenging” but he didn’t go into it blind.