A senior engineer at Kerry County Council says that reports created as part of the shelved Áras Phádraig project will not go to waste.
David Doyle was reacting to news that almost 900,000 euro has been spent preparing for the €50 million scheme, before Killarney Municipal District councillors ultimately voted it down.
Despite initially granting approval in February, all seven Killarney MD councillors rejected the plans to redevelop the Áras Phádraig site in July, following the receipt of over 160 public submissions, most in opposition.
Kerry County Council told Radio Kerry that the nearly 900,000 euro (€867,926) spent to date was for design consultations, salaries, and other costs associated with brining the Aras Phádraig development, including a primary care centre, to the planning stage.
The HSE paid approximately 190,000 euro for the design of the primary healthcare centre, while one quarter of the over 867,000 for the remainder of the work done to date on the Áras Phádraig project came from the council's coffers (€216,981.50).
The remaining 75% (€650,944.50) was drawn from the Department of Housing's Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF).
Mr Doyle says this money is not all lost, as the site survey and investigation, conducted during the drafting of the initial proposal, will still be valid for any further projects, even if a HSE primary healthcare centre is not built on the site.
Kerry County Council is to meet with the Department of Housing in the coming weeks to discuss the project.
