Projected cost to build Owenacurra replacement centre now €15.9m
The Owenacurra residential mental health centre in Midleton, Cork, was first marked for closure by the HSE in June 2021. File Picture: Howard Crowdy
The budgeted cost of providing a replacement facility for the Owenacurra residential mental health centre has jumped by 25% to €15.9m — despite the fact the build has yet to even break ground.
The HSE has confirmed that the projected cost of the 10-bed replacement centre in Midleton is currently set at €3.2m more than the €12.7m estimated previously provided in early 2024.
That €15.9m figure includes Vat, construction works, design team fees, surveys, and statutory fees, a HSE spokesperson said.
They added that some €508,260 has been spent on the build to date, and said that the overall budgeted cost “may change as the project progresses”.
The new €15.9m figure means the budgeted cost of the replacement facilities for Owenacurra, which was first marked for closure in June 2021 when 20 long-term residents were accommodated there, now stands at at least €17.8m when the budget for refurbishing two additional residential facilities in the Midleton area are included.
In March 2022, the HSE told the Oireachtas that an overhaul of Owenacurra to provide a 21-bed facility would cost €8m to process — a figure which the service said at the time was “not viable”.
A commitment from the HSE to replace Owenacurra was finally delivered in November 2023 in the wake of a multi-year concerted campaign by local advocates to save the facility.
Owenacurra itself has been permanently shuttered since October 2023, when the onset of Storm Babet saw the facility flooded.
The six residents still in the centre at the time were subsequently accommodated in a local hotel pending the delivery of the two residential houses which the HSE had purchased to that end locally.
While one of those houses, at Lauriston Park, has since opened its doors, the refurbishment of the second property at O’Dwyer’s Rd has yet to complete.
It is, at present, unclear where all six of the remaining residents of Owenacurra who were in place when the centre was flooded are currently residing.
While the HSE had previously committed to rebuilding Owenacurra, the original timeline for that project’s completion was the end of this month.
Earlier in March, the revealed that far from being completed, the replacement build has yet to even begin construction — with a tender for the contract set to go live from the end of the month.
“The specific timeline will be determined once contractors are engaged,” the HSE’s acting head of mental health services for Cork/Kerry, Deborah Harrington, said recently.
“It is anticipated that construction will commence on site June 2025."
