A veil of sadness has fallen over County Limerick following the tragic passing of Ruth Staunton
Search
16 Mar 2026
Search
16 Mar 2026
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
The former Scoil Carmel building in O’Connell Avenue set to become home to a new HSE surgical hub facility l PICTURE: Adrian Butler
CITY planners have approved proposals to build a new HSE facility designed to tackle hospital waiting lists, at a former school.
Planning permission was sought by the health service to build a new elective surgery hub at the old Scoil Carmel at O’Connell Avenue in the city centre.
The site had been used as the city’s vaccination centre for part of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now it looks set to get a new lease of life, with the surgical hub providing minor day surgery procedures.
It’s anticipated it will be able to welcome up to 150 patients each day, according to planning documents.
The facility is being built as part of a €100m government response to tackle the long waiting lists in hospitals across the State.
It comes with tens of thousands of people still awaiting treatment at University Hospital Limerick in Dooradoyle.
Alongside the hub in Limerick, similar facilities are to be constructed in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Waterford.
Scoil Carmel ceased operating as a secondary school in 2016 amid declining student numbers.
From December 2021, it was home to the HSE’s Covid-19 vaccination centre after it moved from Limerick Racecourse in Patrickswell.
It’s anticipated there will be around 100 staff members serving the site each day.
Council gave the development permission subject to 16 conditions.
These include a stipulation that a junction build out into O’Connell Avenue be left out - and only emergency vehicle access is allowed into New Street.
This could be in response to local people who objected to the development.
One person said when the facility was used as a Covid-19 vaccination centre, drivers entering and leaving from New Street, just off O’Connell Avenue, “were a serious road safety risk, driving at inappropriate speeds.”
As part of the permission, HSE is being asked to make a financial contribution of €276,888 to Limerick City and County Council for local infrastructure.
No work can take place on the site outside of the hours of 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 2pm on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
