More than 140 HSE properties around the country are lying idle at a time when the executive is paying €40m annually renting space.

Dispersed around the country are 142 HSE properties, all of them vacant, many of which have lain idle for more than a decade.

THE floors of a new hospital, opened last year at a cost of €16.4 million, have been dug up because of major problems with rising damp.

THE opening of a second hospital for the long-stay care of elderly people in Kerry has been delayed because the building may not comply with standards required by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

THE failure to open a new €16.4 million community hospital in Dingle amounts to further victimisation of older people by the cash-strapped Government, it was claimed yesterday.