Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for coming in this evening. It is appropriate that the Minister of State is here to answer this question as it was she and I who started on this saga nearly three years ago. It has been a long arduous three years, as I have said.

The Minister of State will be aware of the property I am referring to here. The Minister of State visited it on site. She saw the potential of the site. The Minister of State saw how whatever organisation will inherit or lease it in time from Cork City Council can expand into the future. It is right beside a public park. It will be put to good use in time by whoever benefits from it.

As I have said, we met the HSE estates engineers on-site nearly three years ago. At that point, we were hopeful that the building, albeit occupied by the National Ambulance Service at the time, could be acquired by Cork City Council or some other stakeholder such as the Rainbow Club, which we were with when visiting that day and which is run by Karen and Jon O'Mahony.

We met that day with the HSE estates engineers to discuss the possibility of that building becoming a base for the expansion of the Rainbow Club and the more than 1,200 children for whom they provide a weekly service in Mahon. We left that site that day confident that things would progress but as we have learned up to now, things have moved very slowly.

The exchange of sites and buildings is a slow process. I genuinely understand that due diligence has to be done, engineers' reports have to be done, solicitors need to be involved in the exchange of deeds or whatever may be the case and while I am aware that the HSE has a statutory obligation in respect of how it disposes of property, three years seems excessive. That is what has driven me to lodge this question this evening. I lodged various parliamentary questions in the past few weeks as well.

As I said, this transfer of property will happen at some stage. It has already been ratified by Cork city councillors and it is imminent. Cork City Council will have to conduct some type of public consultation and put the property out for various stakeholders to express their interest in it but what I am asking here is whether we are any closer to the successful resolution of the transfer of that property from HSE estates to Cork City Council.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for giving me this opportunity, and the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for giving me the opportunity to take his question the response to which he has prepared, as it falls under the Department of Health. Out of respect to the Minister, I will read the response he has given me and then I will add my own commentary.

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to update the House on the release of the HSE property in Mahon from the National Ambulance Service to Cork City Council. The HSE has a significant property portfolio extending to 4,400 buildings across 2,600 locations throughout the country. These buildings range in age from pre-18th century to modern purpose-built facilities. The health estate is varied and complex, ranging from small health centres in rural locations to very large acute hospitals. The HSE actively manages this constantly changing portfolio, including the disposal of identified surplus assets.

The HSE adheres to its statutory obligations and follows the process for the disposal of properties by State bodies and agencies. When a HSE property has been vacated by a service, it is necessary to establish if it is surplus to requirements and decide to retain the property in the healthcare estates. If the property is to be disposed of, the process hierarchy is set out as follows: offer the property to the LDA via written notification; should the LDA not choose to take up the property, under DPER Circulars 11/2015 and 17/2016, the HSE must then offer the property to other stakeholders via the State property register; and should no other State stakeholders take up the property, the HSE places the property for sale on the open market.

Should a local authority identify HSE property which it believes could be repurposed for community use, the local authority should contact the HSE in the first instance to determine if the property is vacant and surplus to health care needs. Eighteen months ago, HSE agreed to transfer a building in Mahon to Cork City Council. The council would then put it out for expressions of interest, with the view that it could be suitable to house the Rainbow Club autism charity. The HSE property in question was leased to the National Ambulance Service in 2021 to use as a Covid swabbing centre. The Deputy will be aware of the vital role the National Ambulance Service played during the pandemic.

Following discontinuation of the Covid swabbing operation, the building has been utilised as a National Ambulance Service regional training facility for in-house staff training. It has also, more recently, been used as a base a community engagement unit who carry out work with groups in relation to the first responder scheme. The transfer of the building was delayed due to the difficulty of sourcing an alternative building for the National Ambulance Service. The Department of Health has been advised that the National Ambulance Service vacated the property over the weekend and returned the keys to HSE capital and estates on Monday, 10 June. HSE capital and estates has assessed the building and is currently carrying out minor remedial works before completing a formal surrender to Cork City Council which is anticipated to take place by the end of this week, this being 14 June 2024. The local HSE capital and estates office is actively engaged with Cork City Council property division regarding same.

That is the formal response that we have. Eighteen months on, we now have the keys and the title passing to Cork City Council. No doubt officials within Cork City Council will act with speed to ensure the project that the Deputy and I have talked about for the past three years will pass on to a community group that provides serious needs supporting 1,200 children on a weekly basis in the Mahon area and wider Cork area and that has an SLA with the HSE.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is great. The Minister of State has provided me an answer tonight that, as she said, by the end of this week it will be formally done. After those many years, that is most welcome. I know that people listening in this evening will be delighted to hear that.

As I said, the response is most welcome. Now that the Minister of State has delivered the news, I would like to see Cork City Council, as she referenced in her response, proceed as expeditiously as possible to get that public consultation under way. There will be a public consultation process, which is understandable.

I will set out the case for the Rainbow Club, as that is why we initially visited that site, as outlined by the Minister of State. It is an organisation she and I hold in high esteem and have visited on a number of occasions. The Rainbow Club's ability to attract staff in the current climate is particularly admirable. It is something we could all learn from in terms of service provision and provision of therapies. Its ability to recruit and provide those services and therapies would put others to shame. I know the Minister of State is also committed to reversing the trend and is pushing for the reintroduction of therapists into special schools. That would also be most welcome but, in the interim, a facility such as the Rainbow Club could provide genuine expansion of service provision in the wider Cork area. As she said, it is not just people from the Cork city area who use the Rainbow Club. I know people who are travelling from counties Kerry and Tipperary at least once or twice a week to avail of its services. Its reach is far and wide.

I reiterate my gratitude to the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in addition to an Tánaiste, who has been involved in this project for an awfully long time, and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, as the building and the facility is in their constituency, although its reach extends much more broadly than that. I ask the Minister of State to maintain the interest she has had in this facility up to now. I know she will get us to a point where we will see that building being refurbished and, most importantly, used. As I said, the most important thing is that will now possibly provide a future for the Rainbow Club or whatever other organisation will go into that building. I again thank the Minister of State for her response.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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This is a project that if the likes of it were in Dundalk or Drogheda, whereby a property was made available to the local authority, I have no doubt the Cathaoirleach Gníomhnach would stay hot on my heels until it was operationalised. It is one of those project that needs to be operationalised now. There is no point in having a building left vacant. It is now a building that will pass over to Cork City Council. There are very good people working in Cork City Council who need to prioritise this because, at the end of the day, Jon, Karen and her entire team, who are amazing, are working out of the hall at Mahon. The wonderful hall committee at Mahon has allowed that, but every day the team puts out the gear to do occupational therapy and training and have to put it away again every evening. All the kids are in Portakabins. There is a beautiful building with a park behind it. The land that comes with it is a natural environment, especially for the older children who are transitioning. It is the most sensory-based space one could imagine and there is ample parking. Children would have the opportunity to be within nature. We always talk about sensory gardens and sensory needs. This is the perfect site for that.

I will commit to funding. This is my own funding and, as I said previously, if this building could pass over there would be funding to make it happen from a capital perspective. I will absolutely honour my agreement on that but I need Cork City Council to act expeditiously so that the HSE can come on board. The HSE has been wonderful in working with the Rainbow Club, shown by the fact there is a service level agreement supporting 1,200 children on a weekly basis. We recognise that if it were not for the Rainbow Club, services would be very depleted in Cork.