New contractor will have to be found for Ballagh’ centre
Cllr Sean Moylan raised the issue.
There are fears in Ballaghaderreen that a planned primary healthcare centre will be subject to the same delays that have bedevilled a similar project in Ballyhaunis.
Cllr Sean Moylan said a meeting of the Regional Health Forum West that the Ballaghadereen Primary Care Centre was first mooted in 2012 and construction was due to start in mid-January 2025, with delivery of the project expected within two years. However, there was still no contractor on site and he was concerned that the same contractor may be involved that was involved in the long-delayed centre in Ballyhaunis.
In a written reply, the HSE stated: “Agreement for Lease (AFL) was signed with a developer in late 2024. However, the developer has failed to submit associated required documentation within the required timelines. The developer has since confirmed they are not in a position to progress construction of the project. As such a new tender competition will be necessary to progress the project further.”
Cllr Moylan told the February meeting of the Regional Health Forum: “We are wondering how could this happen and is it a year delay now we can expect?”
Integrated Health Area Manager Ann Cosgrove told the forum: “It is all really disappointing and unfortunately we have had a few incidents with a few health centre developments over recent years, generally in terms of the cost put forward for works. When it comes to the point of starting, the developer finds they can’t complete the job they actually tendered for.
“I don’t know in this case if it is the same developer as in Ballyhaunis as we cannot disclose such information. But the project does have to go out to tender again and you definitely will be adding on another four tto five months in terms of that process and there is no way around that.
“But we are committed to it and with more health centres out to tender, we would expect to be getting more realistic costs now than at the time of Covid, which did not factor in inflation and high costs associated with building developments.”
