A historic former nurses' home in Dublin 8 is set to be sold on the open market after the Health Service Executive (HSE) was unable to find another State body willing to take it over.
The Weir Home, an Edwardian redbrick building on Cork Street, has stood vacant for around five years after plans to transform it into housing fell through.
The HSE confirmed it had spent more than two years offering the property to a range of public bodies, including Dublin City Council, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and other State organisations, but none agreed to take on the protected structure.
Having exhausted those options, the HSE said it will now sell the property on the open market in line with its Property Protocol.
The Weir Home was originally built in 1903 thanks to funding from Scottish philanthropist James Weir and served as accommodation for nurses working at the former Cork Street Fever Hospital until the late 1970s.
From the early 1980s, the building was repurposed as a mental health facility before residents were relocated to Grangegorman around five years ago due to the building's age and condition.
In 2019, the Peter McVerry Trust announced plans to convert the property into apartments for people moving out of emergency homelessness accommodation.
However, those proposals never materialised. In 2023, the charity became embroiled in financial and governance controversies following a series of critical reports into its management and financial controls, bringing its housing development work to a halt.
According to the HSE, the property is now surplus to its operational requirements.
Dublin City Council considered using the building for social housing but concluded that, as it is a protected structure, only limited alterations would be permitted.
The council said this would make it difficult to meet modern accessibility and energy efficiency standards without significantly changing the building's historic layout.
It also warned that specialist conservation work would substantially increase construction costs, making the project financially unviable for social or affordable housing.
The Land Development Agency was also offered the site last year but determined it was not large enough to deliver affordable homes under the Land Development Agency Act 2021.
The HSE said one final State organisation had expressed interest in acquiring the property, but that proposal did not proceed.
The Weir Home, located within the grounds of Ireland's oldest surviving Quaker cemetery, is one of the largest vacant buildings in the HSE's property portfolio.
Its sale follows a similar decision earlier this year involving the former Baggot Street Hospital in Dublin 4, which is also being placed on the open market after no State agency agreed to take ownership.
