Plan for £60 million development of Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown receives the green light.
The James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, named for the 1916 revolutionary James Connolly opened in 1955 as a tuberculosis sanitorium.
Ten years ago it was designated as a flagship hospital for the Dublin region, and in order to fund this the Eastern Health Board decided to sell one hundred acres of surplus land surrounding the hospital campus. Minister for Health at that time Michael Noonan
Agreed to match that figure pound for pound.
The Celtic Tiger property boom saw real estate prices rise, and last week the land was sold for thirty million pounds, which the Department of Health will complement with funding from their budget.
An investment of sixty million pounds is long overdue, says TD for Dublin West Austin Currie, which will have the James Connolly Memorial Hospital on track to be
One of the best hospitals in the country.
The development project includes 150 new beds, operating theatres, an outpatient department, casualty section, coronary and intensive care units.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 17 June 1998. The reporter is George Devlin.
