This article is from page 1 of the 2011-05-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
THE old Our Lady’s Hospital site in Ennis has emerged as a potential location for an ambitious multi-million euro project to have Clare serviced by a new state-of-the-art private hospital. The Clare People has learned that hospital services could return to the Gort Road site nine years after the closure of Our Lady’s Hospital that served as the county’s psychiatric hospital for 134 years.
Shannon Development have confirmed to The Clare People that they are willing to do business with the hospital promoters. “We would have to go to the planning authority to see if it would be suitable as a site for the hospital,” Shannon Development’s Regional Manager for Clare, Finbarr Broughan reavealed. “If a proposal to build the hospital comes, yes, it’s something that we would be interested in,” he added.
In 1998, Shannon Development purchased the 65-acre landbank at the Our Lady’s site from the Mid Western Health Board for £2.44 million, while Clare County Council subsequently purchased 31 acres for £900,000. The Clare People understands that behind-the-scenes negotiations having taken place about the feasability of using the Our Lady’s site for developing Clare’s answer to the Galway Clinic.
These fresh moves come in the wake of the Bord Pleanála decision to reject plans submitted by developers John Stack and Pat Bonner to build the 100-bedroom hospital at Woodstock on the Shanaway Road on the outskirts of Ennis. The Clare People spoke to John Stack on Monday, but the Lisdoonvarna-based builder declined to comment specifically on negotiations.
The € 50m hospital project was given the go-ahead by Clare County Council last October, when councillors voted by 28-3 for a re-zoning of land at Woodstock, after local authority planners proposed that the application should get the go-ahead after the developers reduced the scale of the proposal.