[WATCH] Infrastructural failings force evacuation of parts of Mount Carmel Hospital

Parts of Mount Carmel Hospital are closed because of serious infrastructural problems as works on a five-year refurbishment of the whole building are underway, Chris Fearne said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said those sections in the 150-year-old hospital that sustained serious infrastructural failings over the years have been closed to patients and workers.

He was reacting to footage that emerged over the weekend of the hospital, showing various infrastructural failings, including ceilings being propped up by jacks.

Fearne said the government had announced a five-year refurbishment programme last October to turn the old hospital into a state of the art facility.

He confirmed that some sections had to be closed down for safety reasons until infrastructural interventions were made.

Fearne said that patients in two wards were temporarily relocated into another building outside Mount Carmel until these wards were refurbished.

“Once these two are complete, we will continue with the transfer of patients from one part of the building to another so that over five years the whole place would be refurbished… This year we have €5.6 million voted for this project,” Fearne said.

He was speaking after visiting the site in Paola were works on the construction of a regional health centre started.