Gardaí are hunting for three suspected arsonists after fire gutted a derelict listed former asylum in Cork city.

The embers of Tuesday’s fire at St Kevin’s have barely died away, but questions are still being asked in relation to another famous Cork building that went up in flames a year ago.

The HSE has defended the level of security it had in place at the St Kevin’s unit in Cork, but would not reveal how much it had cost in recent years.

Our Lady’s Hospital on the Lee Road in Cork City was built as a mental health institution on the northern slopes overlooking the River Lee in the 1840s.