Today's announcement of the acquisition of over 40 acres of lands at Raheen, Limerick for new healthcare facilities is not just important for the health of our region.  It is another key decision which brings our vision of and aspirations for Ireland's first really sustainable city-region closer to being our reality. 

I doubt there will be many other days of such important consequence during my mayoral term.  

On top of the usual day to day tasks, I was honoured as Mayor to give the opening address for the launch of the new Bon Secours hospital, the first acute care hospital built in some two decades in Ireland. 

Then, later in the afternoon, I got to move back the bollards to allow traffic to flow on the long awaited Coonagh-Knockalisheen road for the first time, opening up what has been described as the largest cul-de-sac in Ireland.    

But then later in a hat-trick of great news, came a call from Minister McNeill TD to confirm news I had been awaiting for weeks. 

The Government consent for the purchase by the HSE of lands at Raheen for an expansion of UHL and new hospital had been received.  It is hard to over-emphasise how great this news is for the Mid-West.  Better healthcare facilities are long overdue. We have all heard too many devastating stories from our Mid-West hospitals as a result of decades of under-investment.  

But things have been changing and changing for the better.  In the two short years since my election, we’ve welcomed the opening of the new Bons Secours hospital in late 2025, the construction of almost 200 new beds at UHL, the building commencement of a new cancer centre in Moyross and a new surgical hub on O’Connell Avenue.  But without a doubt this is the most important news of all.  I want to congratulate the Minister and our local HSE leadership for getting this over the line. 

Since the very first month of my election, myself and my team in LCCC have been in discussions with the leaders of the HSE to help prove to others the need for this facility and to identify and secure lands for it before anyone else could snap them up. 

But not just any lands – we knew to build a compelling case we needed to find lands which were perfectly suited to the task at hand. They needed to be operationally close to the existing UHL, to work with our own LCCC plans driven by increasing top-down planning for the growth of Limerick, to be close to the road network and suitable for a large park and ride but more importantly right on our new Adare/Foynes rail line. 

The icing on the cake, to be located beside some of the world's best healthcare companies just across the road.  

For those who know me it will come as no surprise how I felt confident about this location. I grew up less than a kilometre away and cycled by these fields on my way to and from school so many times.  

Indeed, it was why I was forced to continue to say nothing as people speculated in recent weeks that the other large tract of lands I had agreed to buy with my Mayoral Fund were intended for the new hospital.  In truth, those lands were designed (as will be more obvious now) in my mind to play a key role in how we enhance and grow Patrickswell to serve as the ideal home for many of the healthcare workers who will travel to this new hospital one short stop along the train line which connects both location. 

My longer-term vision for a Mid-West region with towns like Ennis, Adare and Nenagh connected to priority services in train-serviced neighbourhoods in Limerick city has moved another step closer to realisation today.  As Colbert, Moyross, Ballysimon, Rathbane and Patrickswell start to fall into place, I grow more and more confident the end picture is within our grasp. 

The reason that this news is so important goes far beyond healthcare.  With this decision, now we have yet another location which becomes part of a compelling case for the Government to reverse recent decisions to not allocate enough money for Limerick to have the public transport it deserves.  The commuter public transport system on existing lines which our region needs to continue on its way to becoming Ireland's first city region build on sustainable transport oriented planning for which it is so well suited. 

Electric or hydrogen powered trains running direct from Adare, stopping by Patrickswell, the new hospital/Raheen Industrial Estate,  UHL and the Crescent Shopping Centre, Rathbane, Colbert, Parkway/UL, Moyross/TUS/Thomond Park and then onto Sixmilebridge and Shannon.

That is our future.  And with every decision like the one today, it becomes closer.

There is still a lot of design, planning and construction to be done before these lands host a new hospital for our region but that is for another day.  Today, we just need to reflect and understand what a really good day it has been for our region. 

I want to thank all of my own team at LCCC and those at the HSE who worked discretely with me on this for months now on this project and congratulations to all involved.  I also want to thank the leadership of other state agencies who had their eyes also on these lands but who agreed to step back and let the greater public interest win out.  The public interest in being able to offer to the Minister ready to purchase lands in Limerick if the HIQA report concluded what we believed it should.  Namely, that there was a need for a new site, with plenty of room for expansion, in close proximity to the existing UHL operations and with great access.  

I checked my diary earlier.  My first conversations after my election in mid-June 2024 took place on the 27th June 2024 with HSE REO Sandra Broderick - an early discussion to swap notes, reach agreement and plot on what we needed to do to unwind decades of underinvestment in healthcare facilities in Limerick.  I want to acknowledge the constructive leadership Sandra under Bernard Gloster's own leadership has shown since our first conversation to drive this outcome forward.  This result belongs to their tenacity and skill.    

I also want to thank Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD not just for convincing her Cabinet colleagues about this investment for the Mid-West but for also taking the time to ring me earlier this afternoon to personally share the news. I appreciate the courtesy and look forward to continued engagement as we work to deliver this vital project for the Mid-West.