Planning application for 200 bed psychiatric facility should be re-submitted

A pre-application consultation for a new 200-bed psychiatric in-patient facility on the grounds of St Edmundsbury Hospital in Lucan has been ruled as a “strategic infrastructure development” for national mental health services.

St Patrick’s Hospital Lucan, formerly known as St Edmundsbury Hospital, is located within large grounds of a renovated and refurbished 19th century Georgian house (including sitting rooms, recreational rooms, therapy rooms and kitchen-dining room facilities) as well as modern purpose-built resident accommodation.

It is part of St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS), who are proposing to construct a 200-bed adult in-patient general psychiatric hospital set in and around the existing historic walled garden located to the south of the St Edmundsbury site.

The development would include refurbishment and repurposing of a number of historic farm buildings in support of hospital operations, continued use of St. Edmundsbury House for extended day care service provision and construction of a new 14-bed in-patient adolescent psychiatric unit, to be located on the site of the existing 52 bed unit.

This would allow increased provision of services at the Lucan site, such as adult and adolescent inpatient and day services, eating disorder, age care, higher acuity and general psychiatric care services, consultant and hospital administration and a full range of therapeutic services, including music, arts, crafts, and horticulture.

The development would also provide public open space to preserve the existing walking loop and ensure public access to the future Liffey Valley Park.

Open gardens accessible by service users and staff only, connecting the new hospital to the existing buildings also form part of the development, along with private gardens as secure spaces for service users with direct access form the new hospital and courtyards intended to be private and secure spaces situated within ward areas.

In a decision published on January 6, An Coimisiún Pleanála ruled that the 200-bed in-patient facility can be classed as a strategic infrastructure development and that St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services should submit a full planning application to the commission.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.