Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Martin Browne and Mattie McGrath for the opportunity to update the House on the new 60-bed community nursing unit in Cashel. I hope we are not going to make a political football out of a good news story.

The HSE is committed to the development of a new community nursing unit for older persons in Cashel. In early 2016, a capital programme for older persons residential centres was developed in response to the introduction of HIQA's national residential care standards. To date, 43 of these centres have been delivered. Both Deputies will be well aware that a centre is under construction in Clonmel and that we are going to build one in Cashel.

In 2019, the HSE engaged a design team, as the Deputy said, to progress a new 60-bed community nursing unit project on the site of St. Patrick's Hospital, Cashel. A design was completed in 2019, which was brought through stage one design, that showed a detailed layout to the rear of the site. This accommodated the 60 beds. This site, however, is very limited in size, with challenges regarding the number of parking spaces and access to the building.

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 interrupted work on this project. As a response to Covid-19 risks, upgrade works were carried out to make facilities located on the campus of the nearby Our Lady's Hospital, Cashel, suitable for long-stay residential use. Residents from St. Patrick's Hospital were moved to facilities on Our Lady's Hospital campus in June 2020. HIQA registers all community nursing units for a three-year period. Six months prior to the registration expiring, a community nursing unit is obliged to submit an application to reregister the facility. This process is being undertaken with HIQA by Cashel residential older persons services to ensure reregistration for another three years from June 2023. This is to ensure continuity while the new community nursing unit is being built. An assessment and rehabilitation unit, and a day hospital for older persons services, continue to operate at St. Patrick's Hospital.

Many of the vacated areas of St. Patrick's Hospital have been refurbished to accommodate children's therapy services. In addition, it is planned to locate enhanced community care, ECC, services at the rear of the site at St. Patrick's Hospital, Cashel. Site options for the new 60-bed unit for Cashel are under consideration. A HSE-owned site in Cashel town is being reviewed by HSE estates for suitability for a new community nursing unit. Representatives of HSE estates have advised that this site review should be completed in the coming weeks. We can discuss this issue again then. A final decision has not formally been made on sites because optimum solutions for the provision of the services are still being appraised.

To put the concerns of both Deputies to bed, the capital plan will be launched in the next couple of weeks. I have seen it. The new community nursing unit for Cashel is included in it, in appendix 2, to go to the detailed design stage. It is there in black and white. No one intends to not to build this community nursing unit run by the HSE in Cashel. What HSE estates is examining now is where this unit might be located. I said at the start of my reply that I hope this issue does not become a political football. I say this because the last thing I want to see is the new community nursing unit being held up in Cashel because the Deputies are arguing over the site. It is not up to politicians to determine where the nursing home will be built. The most important thing for me is that the community nursing home which will have 60 beds en suite in Cashel, which I know is needed, is built as soon as possible. The one in Clonmel and the crisis house there will both be finished next year.

Many community nursing units are currently being built. As I said, we have built 43 so far, and Cashel is next on the list. Nobody is going to stop the unit in Cashel from being built. A community nursing unit will be built in Cashel.

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