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Minister hints at housing potential for St Finan’s

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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.”

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Massive Park Road housing development given green light

A private developer has been given planning permission to build 249 new residential units at Upper Park Road. The development, which will be built on a recently cleared site near […]

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A private developer has been given planning permission to build 249 new residential units at Upper Park Road.

The development, which will be built on a recently cleared site near An Post’s sorting office, will include a variety of properties from five-bed houses to single apartments, along with a crèche and over 500 car spaces and over 300 bike spaces.

The development has been welcomed by local councillor Martin Grady.

“Killarney has a massive housing shortage so this is very positive. It will retain young families in the area, stimulating economic growth,” he said. “After 17 years of different planning applications it’s finally coming to fruition.”

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Ballydribeen residents living in fear due to anti-social behaviour

Residents in the Ballydribeen are living in fear as a result of increased anti-social behaviour in the estate. Several serious incidents in the estate have resulted in several Garda visits […]

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Residents in the Ballydribeen are living in fear as a result of increased anti-social behaviour in the estate.

Several serious incidents in the estate have resulted in several Garda visits in the last week.

Local councillor Martin Grady told the Killarney Advertiser that residents are “living in fear” as a result of very serious incidents in the last week alone.

One house in the estate was badly damaged when fire crackers were placed inside a letter box.

Another house had its windows smashed in over the weekend.

“It’s a major problem,” added Grady after meeting residents there earlier this week.

One of the most serious incidents occurred on Tuesday night.

A passing motorists had rocks thrown at his car while driving along the bypass whch is adjacent to the estate.
Taking to social media, local primary-school teacher Pádraig O’Sullivan posted:

“Travelling home tonight, at 11.05pm on the Killarney side of the bypass our car was hit by a rock – not a pebble – from the Ballydribben side , which hit the passenger door.

“It was centimetres away from hitting the window where my father, who is visually impaired, was sitting.

“This could have caused catastrophic permanent injury to him.

“The Killarney Garda were on the scene within three minutes.

“They can’t be patrolling the bypass all night.

“It comes down to parenting. You should know where your children are at this hour and be able to teach them what’s funny and what ruin a person’s life or cause a fatal crash.“

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