Planning granted for Tipperary equine hospital
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Overnight rooms will allow attendees to stay overnight with the horses, some valued in excess of €8 million
Planning has been granted for expanded facilities at the Fethard Equine Hospital, including a laboratory building, and overnight bedrooms for veterinary nurses to stay onsite.
The application was made in January by Halley Murphy & associates, on behalf of the Kilnockin Partnership, and granted earlier in June.
The new laboratory is intended to be used for diagnostic testing, which is currently carried out in the main hospital building. The lab currently used is “under pressure” with the volume of testing required. Furthermore, a new building is needed to facilitate some “complications” attached to some testing including the necessary separation of virology and microbiology testing from haematology (blood) and chemistry.
The hospital, which has been in place since 2005, has staff onsite 24/7 between January and June including surgeons, anaesthetists, and veterinary nurses who monitor the horses continually. According to the application, horses with a value in excess of €8 million will “regularly have their own attending staff” who will need to stay overnight.
The application says that staff would not live on the premises, but would have access to overnight beds and shower facilities as required.
The facility expansion should mean a maximum of just two extra staff, and the application was made with the consent of the landowners, the John and Susan Magnier Foundation. Conditions attached to the permission granted include a contribution of €14,740 to the council in advance of building
The hospital is just outside of Fethard town centre, near the rugby club. In the planner’s report, the council made reference to the the fact that Tipperary “is internationally recognised for its bloodstock industry” with “quality land coupled with an experienced labour force, whose tradition of of working with horses has resulted in some of the world’s best breeding and training establishments being in the county”.
The statement from the council continued to say that they would endeavour to ensure that the “vitality and viability of the equine industry is maintained” through the appropriate management of the surrounding rural environment, and would promote Tipperary as a “recognised centre of excellence for the bloodstock industry and equine based leisure and tourism”.