Council management in Kerry have rejected a move to remove the protected status from St Finan's former psychiatric hospital in Killarney to facilitate housing.
Killarney has a severe shortage of housing land and large waiting lists for social and affordable housing.
Currently there is no emergency accommodation for local families facing eviction.
Removing the protected status of the huge idle Victorian building on a strategic site overlooking Killarney would allow the building to be converted more easily into apartments and the surrounding 20 or so acres of land to be used, the April meeting was told, where the motion to delist received strong support from local councillors.
However, the removal of the gothic style Victorian building from legislation to protect its architecture could not be 'conscientiously considered,’ Paul Neary, Acting Director of Planning said in a report brought back to the May meeting today, rejecting the move.
Built at the end of the Famine, St Finan’s was 'an outstanding example of the Gothic Revival style.’
It had been designed by Woodward and Deane the architects who also designed Queen’s College, University College Cork, the Kildare Street Club, the Museum at Trinity College and the University Museum at Oxford.
It was of national importance and also enjoyed Council of Europe protection under the Granada Convention, he outlined.
It was also of social significance demonstrating the beginnings of institutional care for those in need, he said.
Internal works could be carried out to the layout, Mr Neary also said.
The Land Development Agency is looking at it, but the estimates to refurbish the building are ‘a conservative €100 million’, the meeting was also told this morning.
But Independent Killarney Councillor Brendan Cronin who moved the motion to consider removing the building's protected status said St Finan's had remained idle since 2012 and 'the monstrous building’ was ‘financially toxic’ .
No one had shown any interest in the HSE owned building, Mr Cronin said.
"The building is stuck with this preservation order. HSE will only sell the ( surrounding) land with the building. In 20 years time we are going to be left with a monstrous decaying building overlooking the town."
Some 1,500 people were on the approved social housing list in the Killarney Municipal Disrict, Mr Cronin said, no land was available for house building because Killarney was surrounded by the Killarney National Park and a golf course.
He also referred to its difficult history saying at one stage 1,100 people had been confined in the building and Ireland had held more people in mental institutions than other countries.
Expressing his disappointment, but not surprise, the trees were not being distinguished from the wood and the priority should be the present pressure for housing not the past, Mr Cronin also said.
Only Sinn Féin councillor Cathal Foley had objected to the delisting move on the grounds of the building’s historical significance.
In a separate statement recently, the HSE said they have arranged for a current valuation of St Finan’s Hospital site by the State Claims Agency and this was awaited.
Kerry County Council had confirmed that they wish to acquire 5.77 acres to the north of the ring road at Ballydribeen.
In parallel to the above, a new Community Nursing Unit (CNU) is being delivered through Public Private Partnership (CNU PPP Project) on another section of land at St Finan’s Hospital.
The Land Development Agency propose to develop the St Kevin’s Hospital and associated buildings in Cork, the HSE also said.
