Good news for the convent

Templemore Community Services wishes to express its grateful thanks for the many offers of support it has received since announcing the decision to purchase the former Convent of Mercy in Templemore for use as a community day care centre.

Very positive news came this week in the form of an indication from the HSE that they will grant aid the cost of the purchase of the building. This is a huge relief and we are very grateful to Deputy Michael Lowry for his assistance in this regard. His involvement was very significant and very influential in achieving this grant.

So we hope with the Is dotted and the Ts crossed there will be a formal announcement coming soon. The convent will belong to Templemore Community Services on behalf of the community and will be registered in its name. We thank all our public representatives for their support, including Deputy Alan Kelly, Councillors Phyll Bugler and Michael Smith, as well as former TD Noel Coonan, who spoke in support at our recent public information meeting.

We are very grateful to the following senior officials of the HSE, who visited both the convent and our existing facilities and include Janette Dwyer, Deputy Chief Executive; Joe Hoare, National Estates Manager; Sandra Sheahan, Legal Amend Compliance Manager; Aisling Ryan, Director, Mid West Older People Service and Angela Frawley, Manager, Older Persons Services. We very much appreciate their time and their strong support.

There will still be large expenditure needed to adapt the building to make it suitable for community service use. This much larger building will allow us to serve our community in many different ways as well as greatly improving the space and facilities available for our community day care centre.

The offers of support have come in many forms such as offers to run fundraisers, offers of professional services, personal donations, offers to volunteer, and one 82-year-old lady even offered to do a sponsored skydive. These offers of support have come locally, throughout Ireland and also from overseas. If you would like to become a Friend of the Community Convent, we would be delighted to hear from you. Dedicated contact details will be announced shortly and in the meantime any donation can be made payable to Templemore Community Services.

Thank you once again to everyone for your continued support.