Friday 10th January: Senator Frank Feighan has described today’s sod-turning ceremony on the site of the planned €6m Hospice in Roscommon Town as a significant milestone for the project.
“Today’s ceremony performed by Sean Mulryan is a major step forward for this wonderful facility. The Roscommon Hospice will be an 8 Bed In-Patient Unit providing respite and end of life services along with Day Care and Community Care. I want to pay tribute to Mayo Roscommon Hospice, Roscommon Hospital, their staff; all the volunteers; my Government colleagues; Roscommon County Council, the elected representatives; and many others who have shown great commitment to this project. The build project will be funded entirely by the Roscommon Mayo Hospice and alongside this, I have worked very hard over a number of years to ensure that funding has been ring-fenced for staffing costs.
Two years ago, my colleague Minister Simon Harris gave a written commitment that funding will be ring-fenced to staff the Hospice Unit. The successful contractor is expected to be on-site in early February and the Hospice development is expected to take 14 months to build. The Hospice will address the critical lack of an in-patient hospice care facility in County Roscommon. When complete, the Hospice will enable patients with life-limiting illnesses to access expert in-patient help locally.”