Major Mayo facility to start building process this year
Project organiser Gerry O’Boyle explained that a helicopter landing pad will be built at a cost of approximately €180,000.
The volunteer team behind a medical evacuation facility near Ballyhaunis hope to have the first stage of the project built in early 2026.
Project organiser Gerry O’Boyle explained that a helicopter landing pad will be built at a cost of approximately €180,000, with an emergency room to be built later, at a cost of approximately €1.5 million.
Located in Carrowreagh, near Ballyhaunis, the air ambulance base will be built in memory of Billy Kedian, a Ballyhaunis native who died on United Nations service in Lebanon.
“We are waiting for corporate funding and we’ll be applying to Mayo County Council’s CLÁR funding scheme,” said Mr O’Boyle. “We aim to start work in January or February.” The new helicopter pad will come with LED lighting, he added. Planning permission is not an issue in building the helipad, explained Mr O'Boyle.
“You don’t need planning to land a helicopter,” he noted.
The building of a fully-equipped emergency room at the site will happen later.
“It will be fully equipped to treat someone on site," he said.
The Billy Kedian Heli Hero Trust, under which the helipad is being built, is meanwhile helping to bring children to hospital.
“We recently flew a little girl from hospital in London home to Waterford,” said Mr O’Boyle.
The Trust’s website explains that helicopter mercy missions for children will keep alive the memory of Private Kedian, who died after a rocket attack on the army base in which he was serving. Medical evacuation by helicopter from the site was not possible at the time of the attack.
The Billy Kedian Heli Hero Trust website explains: “Our mission is simple: no child in Ireland should ever be left without access to urgent medical care, no matter where they live. Every second counts, and distance must never be a barrier when a child’s life is in danger.
“Through rapid helicopter transport, we bridge the gap between families in crisis and the specialised care their children need. Our vision is of an Ireland where compassion takes flight, where every community is within reach of help, and where every mission carried out keeps Billy Kedian’s memory alive.”
Speaking in September 2024 at the launch of a fundraising campaign in Ballyhaunis for the helipad project, Minister of State Alan Dillon called for an audit of the emergency service needs of the western region to identify the needs for air ambulance support services.
A formal assessment of the region would identify the specific needs for air ambulance services across the region with regard to distances to local hospitals and other factors, said Minister Dillon, who also said that any eventual project in Ballyhaunis would be a “partnership” with a contracted provider supplying the aircraft and pilots and the health service supplying medical staff.
Minister Dillon envisages the proposed Ballyhaunis service operating as a helipad allowing a helicopter with medical staff on board to land and provide emergency care, as well as hospital transfer.
During the launch event, both Minister Dillon and his government colleague Dara Calleary referenced the work of Castlebar-based medic Dr Lisa Cunningham who has pointed out that air-based emergency services across the country are inadequate to the size of the population.
