Appeal for action against developer who stopped work on Mayo health facility

The developer behind the stalled Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre should be refrained from securing further public contracts until the urgently- needed facility in Ballyhaunis is complete, according to local election candidate Alma Gallagher.

This comes as the project marks its three year anniversary since work concluded.

There has been no building activity on site since construction stopped on May 1, 2021, leaving behind a partially built centre which remains surrounded by unattended scaffolding.

This is despite the original completion date for the project being October 2020, as confirmed by the HSE.

It has also emerged that the same developer behind the Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre is working on a different primary care centre project in Portumna, Co. Galway.

“We have now reached the three year mark since construction stopped abruptly on the Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre and we have zero idea when work will resume,” said Alma Gallagher.

“For three years the people of Ballyhaunis have been left with nothing but questions on that centre, which neither the HSE nor the developer have done anything to clear up.

“Questions about when work will resume.

"Questions about when the area will get the primary health care facility that it has needed for several years.

"Questions about what is being done to ensure the safety and security of that incomplete site.

"Questions about when this eyesore in the middle of Ballyhaunis will be replaced by a finished development.

"And questions about how the HSE can allow situations like this to arise.

“Well, one simple answer would be to refrain the developer from any additional publicly funded projects until the Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre is complete.

"They are currently working on another primary care centre project in Galway and who knows what they plan to work on after that.

“If there were no more public projects open to them, I’m sure that would help focus the developer’s mind.

"It would be important that such an action did not just apply to the development company, as the developer has been known to use different companies for different development projects.

"Rather, this action should apply to any development company the developer is a director of, or affiliated to.

“The HSE has to get serious about this project and that means they have to get serious with the developer.

"This is too important to the people of Ballyhaunis and the surrounding area. Having this centre built is extremely serious to us and we wish they were showing the same level of concern.

"We’ve been more than patient, now it’s time the HSE did something to get this resolved,” Ms. Gallagher concluded.