By Sean Moriarty

Plans for a €4.2m Waterford housing project could set the benchmark for the future of St Finan’s Hospital.

WATERFORD: St Joseph’s House Manor Hill Waterford is being converted into 71 apartments. There is similar potential at St Finan's Hospital in Killarney. Photo: MDP Partners

This is according to TD Peter Burke, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage who visited St Finan's on Tuesday during a whistle-stop tour of Kerry.

Mr Burke was accompanied by his Fine Gael colleague, local TD Brendan Griffin, who spoke about how the Waterford project could be replicated in Killarney.

Late last year Waterford City and County Council announced that it was to build 71 residential units in St Joseph’s House, Manor Hill – a former convent building in the city.

Over €4.2 million has been approved to re-purpose the existing buildings which are protected structures, to provide 50 apartment dwellings within the former convent building and 21 dwellings within the outbuilding clusters on the Waterford site.

St Finan's has been vacant since 2012. The site and its surrounding gardens is currently owned by the Health Services Executive (HSE) who offered the property for sale on the private market last year but so far no offers have been received. The HSE is building a new Community Hospital on a portion of the 30-acre site. Around five acres could be used for a new pedestrian underpass linking Ballydribbeen and neighbouring estates to the town side of the bypass. Mr Griffin said housing was one potential use while Mr Burke cited the County Waterford example as one way the iconic building could be put to better use.

“This is a proactive step in terms of examining all possible uses for the building and the site,” Mr Griffin told the Killarney Advertiser.

“The most pressing issue we have in this country at the moment is that the lack of housing for people and that is very much at the heart of what we're doing today.”

St Joseph’s Houses in Waterford city centre can draw many similarities to the Killarney site.

The former home of the Little Sisters of the Poor since 1874, has been empty and falling into disrepair since November 2010.

It was bought by Walsh and Sheehan Investments Ltd and through Waterford City and County Council, and it qualified for funding under 'Housing for All – A New Housing Plan for Ireland' scheme.

“We saw in Waterford, particularly, a massive big building like this that we brought in to use for residential. So, I think this visit is to get the narrative going, get people talking about what we can do to unlock the potential of this building,” Mr Burke added.

“That can be multi-use. It doesn't specifically have to be solely for housing. Obviously, we're in a housing crisis so the primary objective of the Department is to unlock as many residential units as we can.”