Former Crooksling nursing home will be put up for sale
By Aideen O'Flaherty
THE former St Brigid’s Nursing Home in Crooksling, Brittas, is expected to go on the open market by the end of this month – after the HSE wrote to five different agencies advising them of the availability of the site.
As reported in The Echo last June, the HSE’s Estate Management department were waiting for internal permission to put the nursing home and the surrounding grounds on the market, after the nursing home had shut and the residents had been moved.
The former Crooksling Nursing Home in Brittas
St Brigid’s closed in late March 2020, and the majority of the residents were transferred to the new Tymon North Community Nursing Home in Tallaght.
Crooksling was developed in the early 1900s after it was donated to the community to serve as a sanatorium for people with tuberculosis, and later became a nursing home.
The HSE’s plans for the sale of the site were met with frustration in the local area.
Cllr Deirdre O’Donovan, who is on the Mid-Leinster Regional Health Forum, had called for the site to be retained by the HSE and to be transformed into “a centre of excellence” for care of the elderly, and to follow a retirement village model – as opposed to a nursing home facility development.
However, a recent review by the HSE found that the site was “no longer useful for healthcare provision” as the site’s building systems and plant items “have approached their end of life or have failed or become obsolete”.
The Echo understands that the site, which includes a farm and a water reservoir with connections to local residents that must be maintained by the site’s owners, is valued at approximately €1m.
The current revenue cost for the nursing home is approximately €300,000 per annum, which includes security, repairs and insurances.
The HSE wrote to a number of agencies advising the availability of the site, which either garnered no response or confirmation that there was no interest in the site.
The Land Development Agency and the Office of Public Works didn’t respond to the HSE and South Dublin County Council informed the HSE that they weren’t interested in the site.
The Department of Education and Skills said they would investigate their needs but never responded.
The Department of Justice and Equality initially expressed an interest, but after viewing the site said they had no interest in it.
Cllr Mick Duff previously told The Echo that he hoped South Dublin County Council would put in a bid for the site so it could be developed for social and affordable housing.
This week, Cllr Duff said that it is “a pity that they didn’t join in with surrounding councils to buy the site and create additional housing, social and affordable, there”.
As there has been no expression of interest in the site from other state bodies, stakeholders and local authorities, the HSE is now preparing to put the site on the open market at the end of this month.
They will accept tenders from parties interested in purchasing the site up to June 30.
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