An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-18 ============================================================ Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel I join in the Christmas wishes. I thank all the staff in the Seanad for their support and patience with me and everyone. I thank the Deputy Leader, Senator O'Loughlin, and the Leader, Senator Kyne, for their patience. A lot of patience is required. I thank everyone. I also thank the ushers, who are always very supportive and kind. While we are getting a break, it is important to remember homeless families here, in the West Bank and Gaza in Palestine, Ukraine and Sudan. I encourage people to make a small donation at some point over Christmas. I wish to raise the unfortunate reality that Baggot Street hospital is being sold on the private market instead of being used for a public or community purpose. It is an absolute scandal that this building was allowed by the HSE to stand derelict for years. It is a magnificent building. The site is in such poor condition that massive investment would be required to bring it back into use. The Land Development Agency, LDA, has already decided that the building is not viable for affordable housing. At the height of the homelessness and affordability crises, it is hugely disappointing that a building as beautiful and historic as this one cannot be kept for public use. If the site had been maintained properly and if there had been a clear plan in place for its future use after the hospital closed in the 1980s, we would be having a completely different conversation about this facility, but that never happened. It is shocking to think that staff, management and the Government never thought of putting a plan in place to ensure it would be protected and saved. The building should be the centrepiece of the Baggot Street area, either as affordable housing or as a community resource centre, like St. Andrew's Resource Centre on Pearse Street. Instead, it has been allowed to rot. The unfortunate reality is that the State all too often neglects our historic buildings and allows them to crumble or be torn down around us. We have seen this with Boland's Mill, O'Rahilly House in Ballsbridge and now Baggot Street hospital. Given the track record of this Government, it will more than likely be left derelict for years into the future again, showing a blatant disregard for the local community. We have a real problem with the protection of our built heritage in this country, as well as with the efficient use of State-owned sites. You do not need to look any further than the site on Kevin Street, which has been empty and derelict for a number of years, a developer having spent millions or euro on it. That site could have been used by the State for the community and for housing. I urge that we would have a debate in the new year on the Government's approach to protecting and making the best use of our historic buildings. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-18