HSE submits planning application for 20-bed Offaly hospice

THE Health Service Executive has submitted its planning application for the long awaited Midlands Hospice to serve patients in Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Longford.

The cutting-edge specialist Palliative Care unit is proposed to be built on Arden Lane in Tullamore, near the Midland Regional Hospital. There was initial resistence to the choice of the site by the Department of Health.

If approved by Offaly County Council planners, the centre will bring quality end-of-life care closer to those who need it most in the four county region, the only region in Ireland still without a dedicated hospice.

The HSE plan to build a 3,805m2 hospice, designed to provide high-quality care and support for patients and families in need.The facility will feature a mix of one-and two-storey buildings, housing 20 inpatient bedrooms, dedicated day care services and essential administrative spaces.

The project includes 80 parking spaces for staff and visitors, seven designated accessible bays, as well as 30 covered bicycle spaces.

Infrastructure improvements are part of the plan, including a two-way carriageway, a new footpath and street lighting along Arden Lane.

Additionally road upgrades will be carried out on a section of Arden Lane to ensure smooth access to the hospice along with street lighting and new utilities to extend to the site from a new junction with a distributor road.

The Arden Lane site was slected in September 2024 when the then Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly made the announcement.

Two locations had been under consideration for the development, the Arden Lane site and the Wellwood Health Campus, an unfinished skeletal structure at the N52 roundabout which had planning approval for a 99 bed private hospital.

When making the announcement last September, the Minister said the Arden Lane land had scored highest in a competitive process run by the HSE.

At the time of the announcement the Minister stipulated that a planning application must be lodged and permission granted along with ''an agreed road widening plan and funded commitments from the relevant state bodies to bring services to the Arden Lane site,'' within 12 months.

Many fundraisers have been held in the counties for the hospice for the past five years.

A recent fundraiser by Laois and other Midlands credit unions raised €17,000.

Tullamore Lions Club is offering the Arden Road site free of charge, according to Hooves4Hospice chair Pat Lalor.

Their Hooves4Hospice farming fundraiser has been at the forefront, raising over €1 million since January 2020, supported by all four counties. Read their interview here.

In 2022 Taoiseach Michael Martin announced €20 million in government funding to go towards the construction costs.

The application was lodged in early April, with a decision due in coming months.