Meath backlash to calls for hospital in Louth
THERE was an angry backlash this week to calls for the location of the planned new regional hospital to be reconsidered.
Over a decade ago the HSE had identified Navan as the base for a planned new hospital for the North East.
A number of other possible locations were mooted at the time, including one just outside Ardee, and close to the M1, but the Meath site emerged as the preferred location.
The hospital has, of course, never been built, but over the last few months there have been a series of calls for the location to be looked at again.
Louth TD Declan Breathnach confirmed last week that he had made submissions to the Draft Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy, which included calls for a reconsideration of where the hospital should be based.
The issue had also been raised at the January meeting of Louth County Council where Cllr Colm Markey had asked for the hospital’s planned location to be reviewed.
He said that access was a major consideration for any new hospital, adding that the decision to locate it in Navan had been made over ten years ago and should be looked at again.
But the calls have caused outrage in Meath, with councillors there criticising the moves.
Deputy Peadar Tóibín, told the Meath Chronicle said there was ‘no doubt in his mind that government promise on the regional hospital now only existed in the waste paper bin.’
He said ‘any future hospital location would be determined by population, transport and ease of access and the HSE had already determined that Navan was the best way to achieve this. It would be illogical beyond belief if that was to be overturned for political reasons,’ he said.
But Deputy Breathnach said he had written to the council’s Chief Executive late last year.
‘I expressed my view, that in relation to the planned Regional Hospital for the North East where various sites from that in Charleville Dunleer (adjacent to the railway network) together with North Eastern HSE land in Ardee were looked at, that it is my firm belief that a site easily accessible from the M1 and close to the rail network would be preferable, to the site at Navan which has been indicated as the preferred option.’