Names omission scuppers expansion plans for major refurbishment of Cuan Mhuire Athy
An artist’s impression of how the new apartment wing would have looked
PLANS for a major refurbishment at the Cuan Mhuire rehab centre just outside Athy have fallen through because of a basic administrative oversight.
The firm responsible for the plans – RDF Architects and Planning Ltd from Charleville, Co Cork – forgot to include the names of the company directors contrary to S22(i) of the Planning and Development Act 2022.
This oversight of omission went unnoticed all the way from RDF’s first draft of the plan on 22 May 2025 up to the planning application on 17 September. However, such a minor mistake should not hold up a future reapplication too long On 17 September, RDF had submitted its plans to demolish a conservatory to the rear of, and the entrance lobby to the existing treatment centre, along with the relocation of three greenhouses on its surrounding land (curtilage) – and that was just the start.
The plan also included the building of a single-storey extension to its rear and a covered walkway.
They would also build two single storey, one-bed apartments on the northern side, as well as a new lobby with external insulation, new render, timber hardwood cladding and new windows.
The big build, however, was to have been a two-storey detached building to the rear of the treatment centre with a glass link to it, to include a kitchen, sitting, dining, plant and store rooms and new toilets.
This building would also have housed seven double bedrooms and two single bedrooms, all en suite.
After spotting the omission, the planners declared the application as ‘null’ and advised the firm to remove the statutory site notices it had erected at either end of the proposed build and advised that: “Cuan Mhuire is not precluded from reapplying.”
In June, the facility – just two kilometres north of the centre of Athy – celebrated the 60th anniversary of its first-ever treatment centre at St Vincent’s Hospital in south Dublin and today “there are over 600 people every night in a bed in five such centres across the country.”
