The voters in Cashel deserve answers about the proposed 60 bed Community Nursing Unit in the town before the election according to Independent candidate Liam Browne. Mr Browne says that news that the HSE intends to wait until the next Cashel Local Area plan is completed, sometime in 2025, before making a decision on whether to buy land at Palmers Hill adjacent to land it currently owns will cause extensive delays to the project( see HSE Reply below).
Mr Browne is expressing concerns that the unit may never be built as a new facility in Clonmel will be ready for use in early 2026. The HSE says the project is a priority for delivery. The original planning application was due to be submitted in 2019 for the St Patrick’s Hospital site. Minister Mary Butler previously stated that residents currently in Our Lady’s in Cashel will ultimately be moved to the new facility. These residents were moved from St Patrick’s Cashel to a part of Our Lady’s that was refurbished in the early days of the Covid pandemic.
The Independent candidate is calling on sitting Cllr’s Declan Burgess and Roger Kennedy to clarify their position on the project and asks if there is any risk that the HIQA registration for Our Lady’s Campus will not be renewed. Both sitting councillors are members of the South Regional Health Forum which has discussed the project on several occasions. Liam Browne is adamant that the facility must be delivered in Cashel as the demand for such a service is ever increasing. Tipperary Sinn Fein TD Martin Browne released the reply he received from the HSE dated May 20th.
