{"id":660400,"date":"2026-10-20T13:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660400\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:44:11","slug":"health-minister-to-turn-sod-on-sunflower-hospice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660400\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Minister to turn sod on sunflower hospice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">The Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, will turn the sod on the Sunflower Children\u2019s Hospice in Castlebar next month, marking a major step towards the development of Ireland\u2019s first children\u2019s hospice outside Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>The facility is being developed by Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation and will provide specialist palliative care for children with life-limiting conditions and support for their families across eight counties, from Donegal to Limerick.<\/p>\n<p>Construction is expected to begin in January 2027, with the hospice due to welcome its first patients in 2029.<\/p>\n<p>Nine million euro has been raised towards the 20-million-euro project since plans were announced in November last year. Fundraising is continuing to secure the remaining 11 million euro.<\/p>\n<p>The 36,000-square-foot facility has been designed with input from families and healthcare professionals. Plans include eight en-suite bedrooms with private garden or patio access, four family accommodation suites, sensory rooms and gardens, dedicated spaces for children and young adults, education facilities and quiet rooms.<\/p>\n<p>A hydrotherapy pool and other features have also been incorporated following feedback from families who will use the service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, will turn the sod on the Sunflower Children\u2019s Hospice in Castlebar&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-660400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}