The shameless Shantalla land-grab by HSE thieves
Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley
The Health Service Executive isn’t good at a lot of things, but they do thievery quite well. Tackling waiting lists? That isn’t really the HSE’s forte. Land-grabbing? They’re experts at it.
The HSE are shameless land-grabbers. And not just any old land – our land, recreational and amenity land, owned by the public and effectively stolen by a public body.
In 2013, local residents in Shantalla agreed to allow a sports field to be used by University Hospital Galway as a temporary helipad.
The agreement was that the HSE would return the land to community use after six months.
Over three years later, and the HSE still hasn’t given back the land to the community.
It has refused, despite repeated requests at Regional Health Forum meetings, to confirm when it will return the land.
No wonder residents are concerned the HSE is trying to duplicitously relieve the local community of its green space.
The HSE could not get away with its exploitation of the community’s goodwill were it not for the acquiescence of Galway City Council.
No, it is quite clear that the local authority is an accomplice in the theft of this land. How else do you explain its procrastination in the face of the HSE’s barefacedness?
The planning department at City Hall, and An Bórd Pleanála have been alerted to the HSE’s unwelcome overstay, but yet it continues without penalty.
Our elected representatives haven’t covered themselves in glory in this sordid little affair either.
Billy Cameron (Lab), Frank Fahy (FG), and the Independent Connolly sisters, Catherine and Collette, were among those present when representatives from the HSE outlined the proposal for a six-month loan of land.
They should be outraged that the HSE has made fools of them, and reneged on the agreement.
Nobody questions the need for a helipad, or is dismissive of the work done by the Irish Coast Guard and Air Corps.
However, helicopter landings, according to the HSE, have reduced at the pad. And in any event, the need for a helipad cannot retrospectively justify the unauthorised, and probably unlawful, retention of this plot.
It’s time Shantalla shouts stop and reclaims from the dishonest landgrabbers what is rightfully owned by the community.
For more, read this weeks Galway City Tribune.