THE Southern Health Board was accused yesterday of not being cost conscious. It emerged the board spent almost £500,000 a year renting administration offices in Cork, while premises it owned had been idle.
The board recently sold Our Lady's psychiatric hospital, which is on 50 acres, for £910,000 to a developer. It is reported to have sold 20 acres of the land almost immediately for £500,000.
A board member, Mr Patt O'Keeffe TD, described as a waste of taxpayers' money the spending of large sums of money leasing space for administration staff while land and buildings were owned by the board.
He regretted board members were not told that leasing accommodation was costing such sums of money before the decision was taken to sell Our Lady's.
"Had the board known that £471,966 was spent annually on the lease of premises, the members may not have contemplated selling Our Lady's hospital at a knock down price," he said.
After selling part of the land, the cost to the developer of the building and the remaining 30 acres was about £400,000 less than that paid out by the board in rent each year.
Mr O'Keeffe wants the board to provide its own office space, by either building on some of the available sites in Cork or by converting disused hospitals. There was also the possibility of incorporating additional offices and car parking at University Hospital.
The board's chief executive officer, Mr Sean Hurley, said 67 properties were leased or rented by the board in various locations throughout Cork and Kerry. The majority were rented as community care centres at an annual cost of just under £59,000, stores cost £14,675, while £516,781 was spent on office accommodation in Cork and Kerry.