Hospital and volunteers resolve shelter row

Work will begin early next year on a €3.5m plan for a day care centre and sheltered housing for the elderly in Ennis.

It follows the resolution of a row between the Fr Harry Bohan-led board of Cahercalla Hospital and Hospice in, Ennis, and a local voluntary group, Cuan an Chlair.

The row over access to the proposed development held up the project for more than a year, and led to Cuan an Chlair missing out on an approved €2.1m grant for 2012 from the Department of Environment for 12 sheltered homes.

However, the sides have reached a resolution that will allow Cuan an Chlair to use the main access to the new development.

Since 2008, Cuan an Chlair has raised over €400,000 in fundraising for the day care centre, with the group spending €240,000 on professional and planning fees on the development.

The project was made possible after the former Bishop of Killaloe Dr Willie Walsh in Oct 2007 donated a site — then worth €10m — to Cuan an Chlair to lodge the planning application.

Yesterday, Cuan an Chlair chairwoman Pauline McNamara said: “We’re delighted that we have reached an agreement on the access issue. We are very happy. We have very good relations with Cahercalla.”

Ms McNamara previously warned that alternative access would cost between €700,000 and €1.5m.

In a strongly worded statement last year, the board of Cahercalla had said: “From the very beginning, the Cuan project was initiated without consultation with Cahercalla Hospital, despite its very execution being dependent on our support.”

However, a spokesman for Cahercalla Hospital said yesterday: “Cahercalla has always supported this project, as we believe it is a significant facility for the local community.

“We can confirm that sufficient assurances have been provided by Cuan an Chlair to allow the issues surrounding access to the site to be resolved. It is good news that it is going ahead and may even start construction early in the new year.”