Councillors want HSE to reveal plans for St Loman’s buildings

Standing empty for seven years, St Loman’s hospital appears to have no clear future, members of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad complained when the building arose for discussion at their November meeting.

Cllr Hazel Smyth received across-the-board support for her motion calling on the district to write to the HSE for information on its plans for the building and its surrounding land.

“I brought this up at the regional health forum meeting recently and I was told that there are plans afoot for the former psychiatric hospital there,” Cllr Smyth said – going on to state that she understood it was originally earmarked for transformation into a €50m mental health facility, but that had not happened.

“As we all know, it’s a huge site, with 30 acres and the building itself. The building has been lying derelict for six years now. It’s in a prime location,” Cllr Smyth said.

The Green Party councillor suggested that the land around the hospital building could be used for both woodland and forest woodland and residential purposes.

She said it was an important heritage site and a part of the town’s history and she felt the council should press the HSE for answers on what the future of the building is to be, adding that the longer it was left idle, the greater the problems would be with it in the future.

Support came from Cllr Mick Dollard, who said he had worked there for 43 years. “I can remember when I started working there, 650 people were employed there, and there were 1300 patients,” he said, before going to point to the irony of the fact that the properties were now largely empty of the three main public sector employers in the town for many years – CIÉ, Columb Barracks and St Loman’s.

“Our problem in Mullingar now is we have so many protected structures – and some of those in Columb Barracks are only fit for knocking down.

Cllr Dollard said he did not believe the HSE has any plans for St Loman’s.

Cllr Leonard supported Cllr Smyth’s call, as did Cllr Ken Glynn, who said both his parents had been psychiatric nurses in St Loman’s. He added that as a senator, his father had called for St Loman’s to become a school of nursing but that had instead been developed in Tullamore.

Also supporting the motion was the mayor, Cllr Aoife Davitt.