Cashel community nursing home
Martin Browne complained of long delays and uncertainty over the planned community nursing home for Cashel and asked whether it would be used as an election promise. The Minister of State said there were no half promises, outlined the wider CNU rebuild programme, and said the HSE was still working on the best site.
I see the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is there. I would appreciate if she or the Taoiseach could find out more for me about the community nursing home for Cashel. The latest information from the HSE, 20 months since indicating it was considering other sites outside of St. Patrick's, is that no decision has been made. It is now nearly 17 months since Palmer's Hill was confirmed to be considered. There is €184,000 spent on consultants' reports and the HSE has nothing to report but a vague commitment that something may happen before the end of this year. It is not right for the elderly people in Cashel and surrounding areas to rely on half promises that something might or might not happen at some stage in the future. The people of Cashel need certainty that this unit will be delivered, and we need that certainty now. Like Scoil Aonghusa in Cashel as well, they have been approved funding for an extension but still nothing is happening other than €1.5 million for second-hand prefabs, another waste of money, which take over half the car parking spaces for them.
I do not want to be cynical here. We want to know what is happening now.
Comment on this
Is it going to be used in the next couple of weeks as an electioneering promise by some of the candidates?
Comment on this
There are no half promises in relation to CNUs. The Government in 2016 announced a massive project to rebuild 90 CNUs across the length and breadth of the country. Some 48 of them are concluded. We lost two years during Covid as I think everybody would understand. There are seven currently under way, one in Clonmel in south Tipperary which will be handed over to the HSE in quarter 1 of next year. In respect of the one in Nenagh, there are no half promises. It is on the capital plan. The HSE has stated that it is currently trying to get the best site suitable for the people who will be living in this. It will be their home from home. Just lest there be any ambiguity here, the residents who will eventually move into the new CNU are currently being well looked after in Nenagh.