Owenacurra 'breakthrough' as HSE plans to build new mental health facility on existing site 

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster to 'engage personally' with Department of Health to secure building of 10-bed facility

Just six residents remain in Owenacurra mental health facility, of the 20 there when the HSE marked it for closure. Picture: Howard Crowdy

Campaigners hoping to save the Owenacurra mental health centre in Midleton have hailed a commitment by the HSE to build a new facility on the same property as a "major breakthrough".

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster has written to Cork-based TDs, informing them that he intends to “engage personally” with the Department of Health in order to secure the building of a new 10-bed facility on the Owenacurra site, thereby “modernising it, retaining it in the town, and addressing some of the previous articulated concerns that it would be further removed and isolated”.