HSE spends €900k on security for empty mental health facility in Cork valued at €630k in 2020

Garnish House, meanwhile, has been rented at a cost of more than €43,000 per month since April 2020

The HSE had not responded at the time of publication to a request for comment as to why Millfield House had never been sold despite having no residents for three years, nor as to how much it pays in security costs.

The HSE has spent just under €900,000 providing private security for a Cork building which was valued at just €630,000 three years ago, it has emerged.

Millfield House in Blackpool, formerly a 24-hour mental health facility, has been the subject of a private security detail since May of 2019. Since that date the security arrangement has cost the HSE €897,843, with the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 proving especially expensive at an average of €273,000 per annum.