HSE tightlipped on €12m windfall
With waiting lists for child psychology services currently running at two years in south Tipperary, calls have been made for the money to be ploughed straight into this health sector.
Plans are at an advanced stage by South Tipperary County Council to purchase a substantial parcel of land on the outskirts of Clonmel, with details of the deal revealed to councillors behind closed doors last week.
However, despite pressure in recent weeks on the HSE to pump money from the sale of its excess lands into psychiatric services, the HSE has not given a commitment on the €12m it will get from the council.
It’s understood that a masterplan is to be developed by the council for the 100-acre plus site adjacent to the town’s Inner Relief Road and running from the Cashel Road to the new business and technology park being developed on the former Ballingarrane estate.
Some of the town’s schools may move to the greenfield area when it is developed. These could include the local gaelscoil which has been in rented accommodation for over a decade and whose staff and parents’ committee have been campaigning for a purpose-built school for years.
While the council intends to borrow the €12 million it has agreed to pay for the site, the HSE this week refused to say what it will spend the money on.
It also didn’t want to comment on speculation that the building and land housing the St Luke’s Psychiatric Hospital in Clonmel will be sold to developers.
Labour Party senator and member of the Oireachtas sub-committee on suicide Phil Prendergast has called on the HSE to use the money it gets from the Clonmel sale to fund mental health services in the area.
“This money will be very beneficial for services that need it, particularly in relation to child psychiatry where we have huge waiting lists in south Tipperary at the moment,” she said.
“It needs to be used to help the people who most need these services and could benefit most from investment in these services.”
St Luke’s is one of the country’s largest remaining long-stay psychiatric hospitals and Ms Prendergast said this week that, if the speculation about its future sale is true, the hospital’s current patients will need to be looked after.
Asked about plans for the money realised from the sale of their other landbank in Clonmel, the HSE stated: “There has been no arrangement finalised as regards sale of HSE land in Clonmel and it would not be appropriate for us to comment at this point.”
