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THE HSE ONLY officially informed the Land Development Agency (LDA) this week that it planned to sell off Baggot Street Hospital - after the huge building in Dublin city centre had already been put up for sale.
Public bodies that are planning to sell off public land – such as the former hospital – are required by law to offer the land for sale to the LDA first.
The LDA is the State body that develops land for affordable and social housing.
One government TD has said that it needs to be made clear whether anyone gave serious consideration to the building being used for housing before it was put up for sale.
“The whole saga raises serious questions about how a building left vacant by the HSE for at least five years was never accessed by the LDA for housing,” said James Geoghegan, a TD for Dublin Bay South.
HSE boss Bernard Gloster said while it didn’t make sense for the HSE to keep the building, he was fine if any other state agency wanted to keep it.
“They’ll have to tell me, because I can’t just take it off the market and be lumbered with it again for the next five years trying to mind it.”
The Journal reported on Wednesday that no formal submission – known as a Section 53 Notice – had been issued to the LDA in respect of the hospital.
Under Section 53 of the LDA Act, a relevant public body (such as the HSE) shall not dispose of relevant public land unless the body has given notice and offered the land for sale to the LDA first.
This allows the LDA to assess the land and see if it could be used for social and affordable housing.
This must be done within the 12-month period immediately prior to the disposal of a property.
The LDA confirmed to The Journal on the morning of 15 October that no notice had been received from the HSE regarding the property.
However, after repeated requests from The Journal for clarity on the issue, a statement was issued yesterday evening in which the HSE confirmed that it had since taken action, submitting its formal Section 53 Notice to LDA just this week on 15 October.
It claimed the notice is only required to be submitted prior to disposal of state properties rather than prior to placing properties on the market.
The HSE said it “fully briefed of the LDA informally of the HSE’s intention to dispose of the property” and provided the LDA “ample opportunity to express their interest”.
“The HSE is awaiting the LDA’s formal decision on the Section 53 Notice in relation to Baggot Street Hospital,” the HSE said.
Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly directly asked the HSE boss Bernard Gloster at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday if the LDA was offered the building:
“I believe, yes,” said Gloster. “All of the information available to me on Baggot Street is as follows: the LDA were certainly aware that we [the HSE] had no strategic use for it, and we were thinking of moving it on. Dublin City Council, similarly.”
The HSE said in its statement that it believed it clearly articulated the HSE’s intent to dispose of Baggot Street Hospital in advance of formally submitting the Section 53 Notice to the LDA this week.
In announcing its decision to sell the property last week, the HSE said that no other agencies had showed an interest in taking on the building, either for housing or any other purpose.
Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday on the matter, Gloster said:
Regardless of what the view might be of the engagement with LDA or DCC (Dublin City Council) or anybody else, if any state agency wants to write to me today and express a strategic interest in procuring that building, we’ll take it off the market.
He said Baggot Street Hospital has been up on the register “as surplus to our requirements now since mid 2024 and we can’t continue to carry the risk of an empty building and the cost of security and maintaining it. We have put it on the open market”.
Local TD James Geoghegan, who raised the matter with the Taoiseach this week said that the LDA should get involved now that the building is up for sale to see if the hospital can be converted into cost-rental housing.
He said clarity was needed as to whether the LDA or the Department of Housing was engaged with and gave serious consideration to the property being used for housing.
“We are where we are now, but the community just wants to see this building brought back into use. The LDA needs to get moving and work with the HSE to explore what’s possible while the process continues,” he said.
He said that providing affordable homes for nurses, doctors, key workers and local teachers would be “a game changer for the area”.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik has made similar calls, stating that the property should be utilised for housing needs in the city centre.
When questioned about the costs of bringing the property back into use, Gloster told the PAC that it was his understanding that the cost of bringing it into use for anything the HSE would use the building for would be “punitive”.
“In terms of return on investment, it wouldn’t make any sense for us as a healthcare system to use it. It would hoover up an enormous amount of capital that we badly need for other things. But what the cost would be for other state agencies who might have different use, like for housing or for accommodation, I’m not sure.
“I wouldn’t be an expert in that, but I imagine, to be fair to them, it would be costly, but I’m more than happy to dispose of it on the interstate agency transfer system if any agency wants it, but they’ll have to tell me, because I can’t just take it off the market and be lumbered with it again for the next five years trying to mind it.
“If somebody wants it, they can have it, within the guidelines and rules, but if they don’t, we’re going to sell it,” said Gloster.
He went on to explain, that in some circumstances, when the HSE is transferring a property to another state agency, it can be done so below market value.
The committee was told that the HSE has given over 51 properties in its portfolio to other state agencies since the end of 2022.
Separately to whether the LDA is interested in taking on the property for housing purposes, The Journal reported last weekend that the Department of Housing stated it was not offered the property for housing, with a housing department spokesperson stating:
This department has not been offered the Baggot St. Building for housing purposes.
However, in the statement issued last night by the HSE, it said in October 2022, the Department of Health wrote to the Department of Housing advising that Baggot Street Hospital was available for consideration under both “Housing For All” and as potential temporary accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.
The HSE said that aside from the adjoining Haddington Road side of the property, which is being retained by the HSE for redevelopment as a new primary care centre, the “remainder of the property was offered by the HSE to all state bodies, including Department of Housing, via the State Property Register on 10 April 2024″.
Under the Protocol, properties owned by State Bodies may not be sold on the open market unless there is a timely expression of interest is received from another State Body, with the HSE stating that the onus is on interested state bodies to review the registrar and express an interest as properties of interest appear.
“No formal expressions of interest were received,” said the HSE, adding that as a result it proceeded to prepare Baggot Street Hospital to be placed on the open market for sale in October 2025.
The historic building which dates back to 1831 has been lying vacant since 2019, when the HSE ceased its operations there.
A Dublin City Council inspection report on the property in 2022 states the building was put up for sale in 2015, with a guide price of €15 million, but it failed to sell.
The report states that estimated renovation works at the time, to bring the property into use for Temporary Emergency Accommodation under an EU fund for Ukrainians, was over €17.5 million.
The Irish Times commercial property section reports this week that current guide price is €5.5 million and the property is “expected to see strong interest from a wide range of parties, including hoteliers and developers of high-end residential accommodation”.
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