Kinnegad hospital plans 'still on track' says Jepp consortium

A consortium seeking the green light for a new advanced brain injury hospital at Kinnegad have confirmed that plans for the facility are still on track, and that they will move on the next leg of the planning phase at the end of next month.Last July, Jepp Developments Ltd applied to Meath County Council for planning permission to build a 17,000 square metre ABI rehabilitation centre on a site off the Dublin-Galway N4 at Hardwood, on the Meath side of Kinnegad - just short of a mile from Kinnegad's Main Street.The €60 million development would create 400 jobs to run the centre alone, with the potential for another 250-300 indirect jobs, and many more for the construction of the complex.Planners in Navan requested further information on the development last September, and since then, the consortium - which includes developers, investors, architects and medical professionals - have been working to respond to the Council's concerns and observations."Meath County Council issued a request for further information, and we are still putting together a response to it," said Carlos Fidalgo-Romo, an architect with the Roscommon-based O'Carroll Associates, who are part of the consortium."Hopefully, we will have it lodged by the end of February or the first week of March at the very latest," he said.The revised application will then be reviewed by Meath County Council, the members of which are likely to come up with their final decision sometime in April of this year.At present, two submissions have been lodged with regard to the application: by John and Anna Flanagan of Hardwood, Clonard, Co. Meath, and by the Rybo Partnership, c/o Stephen Little and Associates, Latin Hall, Golden Lane, Dublin 8.RehabilitationIf given the go-ahead, the massive centre will be built to accommodate the rehabilitation of 75 brain injury patients, who would have passed the acute hospital stage, and been referred for immediate therapy.The proposed complex would also provide continuing therapy or respite therapy for patients who have had some or no treatment following the acute stage. These would be accommodated in a 35-bed hotel-style respite centre with leisure facilities.Plans also incorporate a house for six long-term patients who would have little hope of rehabilitation. No dedicated facilities exist for such patients in Ireland at the moment.The development would be the first of its kind outside of the Rehabilitation Centre at Dún Laoghaire.