Council seeks to buy up land on hospital site

WITH the closure of St Finan’s Psychiatric Hospital in Killarney looming ever closer, the town council is stepping up pressure to obtain some of the land around the hospital for housing.

The council, which has been finding it impossible to compete with private developers for the purchase of housing land in the town, is to discuss the situation at a meeting this week.

Efforts by the council to get land from the former Southern Health Board were not successful and councillors are now hoping for favourable consideration from the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The massive St Finan’s complex dates to the middle of the 19th century and now has only around 100 patients. At its peak in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, it had more than 1,000 patients.

Being close to the centre of Killarney, the St Finan’s complex has huge potential for commercial/tourism type development, but the town council believes some of the land should be made available for public housing.

Prior to the closure of the hospital, however, alternative accommodation has to be found for the patients.

The recent report of the expert group on mental health policy, recommended the closure of St Finan’s along with the 15 other large mental hospitals.

Many such hospitals have already closed, including Our Lady’s, Cork, St Patrick’s, Castlerea, and St Mary’s, Castlebar.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time the closure of St Finan’s has been called for.

A similar call was made in the 2003 Report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, which described conditions in some areas of the Killarney hospital as “quite unacceptable”.