Religious group gets planning for Waterford rehab centre 

The Refuge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will convert a dormer bungalow into a residential care centre on a six-acre site near Clashmore

The female-only post-detoxification treatment centre project has been endorsed by the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan.

A Dublin-based religious group has received planning for a female-only post-detoxification treatment centre in west Waterford.

Waterford Council granted permission to the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (RIHM) to convert a dormer bungalow into a residential care centre, a three-bed dwelling for nuns, an oratory, and Covid-19 isolation unit, on a six-acre site near Clashmore.

The RIHM is a collective of individuals from several Catholic organisations across the country, while the nuns are members of the Argentine-founded Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara. 

The project has been endorsed by the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan.

The centre will accommodate up to nine residents in the early stages of recovery and whose detoxification has been confirmed by a medical professional.

Residencies will be capped at 26 weeks maximum and clients may leave at any time.

The facility will be donation-driven and operate as a closed community, with no medical personnel on-site.

Neither the HSE nor HIQA will have involvement because, says project director John Carlin, "there is no need".

Any medical requirement will have been met before they arrive and if subsequently needed will be summoned as per normal channels.

As their recovery progresses, residents may access a garden area but cannot venture further afield unaccompanied.

Non-family visitors will be allowed only in exceptional circumstances, with mobile phones, drugs, and alcohol banned.

There was local opposition to the centre getting the go-ahead with 11 planning submissions received.

Amongst almost 50 objection points raised were concerns that persons "physically, psychologically and emotionally troubled" residents might pose a threat to the community and the centre "could attract undesirable persons such as drug dealers".

The planner's report noted that some parents had considered removing their children from a nearby primary school if planning was granted.

Concerns were also aired that the RIHM had neither "the necessary qualifications or experience" to manage the facility.

Mr Carlin insists "there is absolutely nothing to fear. This centre will actually be a blessing for Clashmore, for Waterford, and for the country."

He says they have "considerable experience" of rehabilitation programmes internationally, including in Syria, Gaza, and Ukraine.

A former director of Knock's Cenacolo drug rehabilitation centre, he says the Clashmore service will operate similarly on the "successfully proven 'three R’s’ principle of refuge, restoration and renaissance".

Denying any underlying religious agenda, Mr Carlin assures: “We just want to help people enjoy better lives. Everything revolves around giving hope.”