White smoke over Teach na nDaoine

The Teach na nDaoine has been secured for community use for Kilcullen, writes Brian Byrne. After negotiations which went up to and beyond midnight, an agreement was reached with the HSE at the highest level, which translated this morning into a retraction of the organisation's plan to sell the premises on the open market.

Full details of the agreement, which is so far an in principle one, have not yet been finalised, but the threat to the ambition that Teach na nDaoine would be for use as an older persons’ day centre for people in the Kilcullen area has now gone.

The premises may also be used for other community needs in the town, once necessary further upgrading of the building is completed. Kildare councillors have committed LPT funds totalling €180,000 over the next three years for this purpose.

"There's still a lot to be worked out, but the key agreement in principle is there," Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer said this afternoon. She has led the effort for the council's acquisition of the building for some considerable time.

The premises were refurbished and extended by a voluntary local community over a number of years, at a cost of more than €164,000, and then handed back to the HSE with the expectation that the vision for a day centre would be realised under its watch. 

However, in the middle of negotiations which had been ongoing between it and the council, the health executive recently announced a plan to sell it on the open market, saying it was surplus to their medical service requirements.

As late as yesterday afternoon, despite several direct approaches and appeals on local news media — including the Diary, KFM Radio and the Kildare Nationalist — for a change of heart, that remained the position.

An intervention was made by Kildare South TD and minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon yesterday, at the highest level of the HSE, to try and untangle what had become an administrative knot in the matter. That finally succeeded, and now there will be a collective sigh of relief across the community that there is a future for the original vision of Teach na nDaoine.

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