British company seeking to develop €50M proton beam cancer centre at Magee Barracks

A British company are planning to spend €50 million turning Magee Barracks into a state of the art cancer treatment clinic.

Maher Barracks was purchased by developer David Kennedy last year, and there have been concerns raised by locals in the area that the old army site in Kildare Town would be used mostly for residential developments, but today's Sunday Business Post reports that Neil Woodford's British company want to build a cutting edge proton beam cancer treatment clinic on the large site.

Such treatment is used dealing with paediatric cases of cancer due to the fact it causes less damage to the surrounding tissue in the body, and it would be the first centre of its kind in Ireland. The report in today's paper says that Karol Sikora, a professor who helped found Proton Partners, met with members of the oncology profession in Ireland to see how suited the clinic would be to patients in this country.

Their presentation stated that 50 highly paid professionals would be employed in the clinic and it would indirectly boost employment in the town. A similar clinic in south Wales is said to be worth a staggering £87.8 million to the local economy.

There would still be enough room left on the site for the development of 400 houses, meaning the land could be used for multiple different developments.

The construction of the clinic would also mean that patients would not have to travel abroad quite as much to receive cancer treatment, and the State are only providing a small number of patients access to treatment overseas through the Treatment Abroad scheme.