€6m back rent needed for idle health centre

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) will have to fork out over €6 million in back rent for a health centre which has lain idle for more than two-and-a-half years.

Yesterday, the HSE announced the Ballymun Health Centre will finally open in March, although its construction to fit-out-stage was completed in September 2003.

The costly delay in occupying the building stemmed from an argument between the Department of Health and the former Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) over how the project was commissioned. It is understood the former Northern Area Health Board (NAHB) made an agreement in principle with the owners of the building, Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, to become anchor tenants, without having secured Government funding to fit it out.