The HSE says current building regulations are effectively standing in the way of the Owenacurra Centre being renovated.
The Executives estates manager Alan O'Connell yesterday told an Oireachtas committee that replacing the ceilings in the long-stay mental health centre in Midleton would mean the entire building would have to conform to all modern building regulations.
Committee members were told that triggering the regulations would result in the project being 'extremely expensive' and ultimately not value for money.
Cork East TD Pat Buckley told the committee that the building was only in need of such extensive refurbishment because it had been allowed to fall into disrepair by the HSE:
"He has to propose or shouldn't be maintaining those buildings all along, which never happened. What's happened now is it's a handy place to be in that the building is not fit for purpose now, we'll just close it and we moved patients out. I met one of the lads there last Thursday me on Tang, who's a resident in that center, but he had the luxury of going down the main street. He was sitting outside the shop having a cup of coffee, and a chocolate cake. He's not going to get that same treatment anywhere else."
