Construction of Birr Primary Care Centre likely to start before Christmas

The long-awaited construction of Birr's Primary Care Centre is likely to start before Christmas, according to a local businessman.

Seán Loughnane told the Midland Tribune today (Monday November 6) that all the official paperwork has been tackled and the green light has been given.

“All the t's have been crossed and all the i's have been dotted,” said Seán, “and it's now highly likely that the building work will start before Christmas.”

It had been hoped that the construction work would start in the final quarter of 2022, but this was postponed to the summer of 2023. Further delay was caused because of an ambulance number issue. “In the original plans,” explained Seán, “it was proposed to construct an ambulance section on the greenfield site, which would house four ambulances. However the HSE queried this and said they wanted to see six ambulances in the centre. Therefore, paperwork had to be revisited. The building housing the ambulances also had to be made bigger and therefore had to be redesigned. This is what led to the delay over the last few months. But this hurdle has been successfully tackled and the builder is now ready to turn the sod.” Seán said the builder is a local man.

He added that while this builder is constructing the PCC, another local developer is also planning to construct a number of houses on the greenfield site and also an Assisted Living Care Centre. The assisted living programme is designed for older adults who need some physical assistance but do not require 24-hour nursing care.

Following the commencement of construction of the PCC, all going well it will be an 18 to 20 months build and three to four months to commission it.

“People are looking for it for a long, long time now and all the services are going to be under the one roof,” said Cllr Peter Ormond when speaking to the Tribune some months ago. “The new ambulance base is going to be at the back of it. It's going to be a complete new facility and it will bring all the services back. The mental health service at the moment is currently moved out of Birr into Banagher so that'll move back. I think it's going to be a very positive development for the area in terms of health promotion and the health service.”

Planning permission was granted on March 12 to BPI Investments to construct the facility on a site at the rear of the Outdoor Education Centre, Roscrea Road. It will have GP rooms, consulting rooms, treatment areas and a pharmacy. It's also hoped to base an out of hours GP service in the new centre, however this is not certain because it's a challenge to find the doctors to fill the role.