A €2 million rooftop helipad will cap University Hospital Galway’s €4 billion redevelopment, despite the HSE’s controversial purchase of Shantalla parkland to build a ground-level heliport.
A majority of the city’s 18 councillors passed a motion on Monday instructing the city manager to accept a €1.8 million offer from the Health Service Executive for almost four acres of greenspace in Shantalla to be used for an emergency medical heliport.
This HSE offer comprises almost €700,000 to purchase 3.7 acres of the six acre park next to University Hospital Galway, plus €1.1 million offered for “community gain”.
Councillors further instructed council chief executive Leonard Cleary to include a stipulation that if this land is not used for aviation, it must be sold back to City Hall pro rata, minus the €1.1 million sweetener the HSE volunteered to improve community infrastructure within two acres of the Shantalla park set to remain in the city’s ownership.
Architects working on UHG’s Development Control Plan showcased concepts for a complete rebuild of the hospital site at a public event in St Joseph’s Community Centre in Shantalla last week.
This included a ground-level helipad and connected taxiing apron on what is currently Shantalla park, including a large, fenced off area to protect the public from increased rotor wash from next generation helicopters. This horizontal side blast, called outwash, from rotor blades at ground level, create winds up to 100mph, potentially causing significant damage to structures, or injury to individuals.
Saolta Group, which runs seven hospitals sites across the west and northwest, expects its Galway city heliport will be constructed by the first quarter of 2028. The region’s new Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS ), operated by the National Ambulance Service, will be based at Sligo Airport. Military choppers can refuel at Renmore Barracks, but HEMS and Coastguard may not, meaning aviation fuel bowsers will be driven from Sligo to resupply air ambulances in Shantalla if landing on reserves.
Architects have also included a rooftop helipad on a proposed six story building housing a new Emergency Department and Critical Care facility for UHG close to Seamus Quirke Road, essentially pivoting the busiest part of the hospital to the campus’ southwest corner.
The core of this new ED block will be strengthened to support a rooftop helipad. Its designers estimate it will cost €2 million alone, and a fire suppression system of foam sprinklers will cost at least another €600,000 as the elevated landing pad will be out of reach for regular fire engines.
The new ED, and four other multi-story buildings - a 300-bed ward block, maternity building, cancer care centre and laboratory facility - are scheduled to be completed in three phases by 2040. This will be the largest ever investment in healthcare infrastructure in the West and North West region, with a price tag of more than €4 billion.
Councillors vote
Councillor John McDonagh (Lab ) proposed a motion at the council’s monthly meeting on Monday seeking to delay a vote on this first ever sale of public amenity land by the Galway city council in living memory. He claimed councillors had not been provided with all the latest, relevant information to make an informed decision, despite 13 months of enquiries, and that other options, including prefabricated, mobile helipads should first be considered by the HSE.
McDonagh’s motion, seconded by Councillor Eibhlín Seoighthe (Ind ), was defeated by a four vote margin in a roll call of all 18 councillors.
Councillors Aisling Burke (SF ), Mike Cubbard (Ind ), Alan Curran (SD ), Níall McNelis (Lab ), Helen Ogbu (Lab ), Seoighthe and McDonagh voted to approve a deferral of the vote to dispose of public land under Section 183 of the 2001 Local Government Act.
A separate motion, introduced by Councillor Peter Keane (FF ) to ratify a contract for sale, albeit with punitive clauses if the HSE uses Shantalla lands for activities other than a helipad, was passed in a 13 v 5 vote. Councillors Alan Cheevers (FF ), Michael Crowe (FF ), Frank Fahy (FG ), Josie Forde (FF ), Shane Forde (FG ), Clodagh Higgins (FG ), Eddie Hoare (FG ), Donal Lyons (Ind ), Declan McDonnell (Ind ), Terry O’Flaherty (Ind ), McNelis, Ogbu and Keane voted in favour.
A number of councillors expressed dissatisfaction during the tense council meeting last week, picketed by Shantalla Park Action Group, at the nature of communications between HSE and City Hall officials regarding the sale.
Councillors were copied into emails late on Sunday night in which city officials demanded the HSE include an accurate description of a proposed bus route through the middle of its Galway hospital campus as part of the land sale agreement.
Senior council officials said they were happier recommending councillors sell most of Shantalla Park once agreed, written commitments, and maps, were included by the HSE. These commit UHG facilitating a bus lane through its campus, continuing from University Road to the Browne Roundabout, via the hospital.
Councillor Alan Curran summed up the public consultation process with Shantalla residents as “shambolic” because no written report was generated - standard practice in assessing local concerns and suggestions. Councillor Mike Cubbard agreed, calling Curran’s description “too kind” and that although everyone supported improved healthcare, the helipad saga “was Killnaskully stuff”.
“Over more than 20 years, this is the HSE’s seventh or eighth attempt to get this greenspace, used by Shantalla people for 80 years,” said Councillor McDonagh. “The big question is why building a new Tier 4 hospital on an overdeveloped site needs this landgrab, when the solution is moving it to Merlin Park,” he said.
Explaining his decision to table a motion supporting the sale, Councillor Keane said he respected the “staunch and stout defence by the people of Shantalla” of their neighbourhood, and that four conditions he attached to the sale should alleviate historic and legitimate trust issues they have with the HSE as an organisation.
These mandate the HSE to use purchased council land only as a helipad; to have no input into how its €1.1 million is spent in Shantalla; to donate a thin strip of land from UHG to guarantee park access from Costello Road; and commits the HSE to providing and maintaining a bus lane through the hospital when seeking planning permission for its first new ward block, to be built by 2029.
“I look forward to seeing a planning application for a Tier 4 hospital in our city. We have world class staff working in third world working conditions, and at the end of the day, world class healthcare trumps all other concerns,” he said.
