TREANOR ADVOCATES RETIREMENT VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT AT ST DAVNET’S SITE

PETER HUGHES

The utilisation of spare accommodation and land at the site of St Davnet’s Hospital for a retirement village development to provide much needed local accommodation for the elderly was advocated at the May meeting of the Monaghan Municipal District by Seamus Treanor.
Whether there was sufficient capacity available at the Health Service Executive property to facilitate the proposal became a point of issue between Colr Treanor and Fine Gael’s David Maxwell during the resultant discussion.
The Independent councillor’s original motion read: “That Municipal District write to the Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, and the Dublin North East Health Board, asking them to immediately put plans in place to turn the campus at St Davnet’s Hospital in Monaghan Town into a retirement village, in light of the fact that 50% of the wards are unoccupied.”
After debate it was agreed to rephrase the motion to request that the Health Service Executive look at the possibility of providing nursing home accommodation at St Davnet’s Hospital, with reference to 50% of ward space being unoccupied – something which Colr Maxwell contested – being excluded from the wording.
It was also agreed that Colr Maxwell and …