Senator Aidan Davitt (FF), who has twice raised the issue of the future of the central main Victorian Gothic-style building at St. Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar in recent weeks, was informed last Thursday in the Seanad that when all staff have been moved elsewhere, disposal of the main building will be considered.
The new Minister for State for Health Promotion, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy TD, told him on 30 June that when the main building is fully vacated and the staff members still working there have been moved to the St. Brigid’s block on the hospital campus when its renovation is completed, disposal of the main building will be considered.
The previous week, Sen. Davitt raised the issue of the main St. Loman’s building with Minister of State, Helen McEntee TD, asking if there were any plans for the landmark building, which is about 95% unoccupied, and was the most striking building on any road approaching Mullingar town.
“Similar buildings have been made into ideal homes for colleges, hotels and general use hospitals, so I am keen that the Minister outline the plans for its use,” he said.
Sen. Davitt, after a similar query to Minister Corcoran Kennedy, said there is great concern about the future of the building, erected in 1845.
Minister of State Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, in providing an update on developments at St. Loman’s Hospital, said the HSE had informed her that patients are no longer resident within the old buildings, following the relocation programme undertaken by the HSE. Most were in the new acute admission units on campus, with maximum capacity of 44 patients. Others were in high-support or medium-support hostels in the community.
Patients from the St. Brigid’s and St. Maria Goretti wards were relocated to similarly named wards in the new 100-bed Cluain Lir community nursing unit on St. Mary’s Hospital campus in Mullingar.
The HSE proposed to renovate the St. Brigid’s block at St. Loman’s to accommodate remaining staff currently in the main St. Loman’s building, along with administrative staff.
“This project has now progressed to tender,” she told Sen. Davitt.
“Once the main building is vacated, the HSE will consider disposal of the building, but will retain the remainder of the campus, which is in use. Disposal of the main building will be undertaken in line with established HSE protocol for disposal of surplus property. The executive is obliged at all times to obtain value for money when disposing of surplus property assets,” she said.
Thanking Minister Corcoran Kennedy for her response, Sen. Davitt asked if the “wheels are in motion for the sale of St. Loman’s.”
The Minister had said it would be looked at, and probably be sold in the future. It needed to be sold in the future, and HIQA has condemned it, he said.
Minister of State: “When the building is vacated, its disposal will be considered, but it is not vacant yet.”
(There have been suggestions over recent years that the St. Loman’s building could be put to various other uses, such as a local outreach of a third level college like Maynooth, but nothing tangible has emerged to date.)
