Bank denies halting loan bid over Fair Deal fund shortage

BANK OF IRELAND (BoI) has denied the reason it halted the loan application of a new nursing home in Co Kerry is because funding for the State’s Fair Deal nursing home support scheme has run out.

Architect John Phelan and developer Michael Ronan, who have been working on plans for a 73-bed private nursing home in Dingle for more than two years, claim they were told last Friday that a loan of almost€4 million from BoI was not going to be provided.

They maintain they were told this was down to financial difficulties in Fair Deal, a HSE scheme which funds nursing home care for the elderly.