Gallagher says lessons to be learned as work on Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre to resume

NEWLY-elected county councillor Alma Gallagher has said that developers working on public buildings ‘must finish what they started’ after it was confirmed that construction on Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre will re-commence in September 2024. 

Mayo TD Michael Ring confirmed that the contractor which had stopped work on the building in 2021 has agreed to complete the project.

Speaking to The Mayo News following the AGM of Mayo County Council, Cllr Gallagher welcomed the news but said that lessons needed to be learnt from the situation. 

Work on the building stopped after the project became unviable for Sharpdale Ltd - who subsequently began working on a primary care centre in Portumna, Co Galway. 

Deputy Ring said that the developer has agreed to complete the facility in Ballyhaunis ‘under the original terms’ and will return to the site before the end of September. 

The primary care centre had been delivered under the so-called operational lease model, where the HSE enters an agreement with a developer to build a primary care centre, which the HSE then leases for a fixed period.

The Ballyhaunis Primary Care Centre was repeatedly raised in the Dáil by Mayo TDs, with Deputy Ring submitting 19 parliamentary questions on the matter. 

Cllr Gallagher, who raised the issue before being elected to Mayo County Council, said there was ‘still a role there for developers’ in delivering public infrastructure. 

“I very much welcome it because I suppose I believe that there’s a role there for developers. In this country we shouldn't be enabling developers and contractors to be leaving contracts, public work contracts, to be finished, and then starting other public work contracts under different names. There is a responsibility that they finish what they started,” she told The Mayo News. 

“We need to learn from this in terms of the flaws and advantages of the operational lease agreement. It has advantages, but we must learn from the flaws of that. I think that needs to be highlighted,” she added. 

Cllr Gallagher, who is the manager of the Clár ICH voluntary housing association, said that there were ‘many many different challenges out there with the construction centre at the moment’. 

“There’s huge demand,” when asked if the model for delivering public infrastructure needed to be reviewed. “I worked in the construction sector myself, delivering different retrofitting projects, so I understand the challenges that are out there in terms of price fluctuation in terms of being fixed into a fixed price term contract, I understand all of that.”

She continued: “Objectively when you’re looking on the outside looking in it seems quite simplistic but it’s not.”

News of the development was also welcomed by Deputy Ring, who said that Ballyhaunis ‘urgently needs a fully operational Primary Care Centre’. 

“As Ballyhaunis is such a multicultural town, the Primary Care Centre is needed more than ever as it is a vital piece of health infrastructure,” the Fine Gael TD stated. 

“It has been an extremely frustrating time for the people of Ballyhaunis and the surrounding areas in light of their needs for such a centre.”