Ireland's First Children's Hospice Outside Dublin Gets the Green Light

Planning permission has been granted for the Sunflower Children’s Hospice in Castlebar — and it’s the kind of news that stops you in your tracks. This will be the first children’s hospice built outside Dublin, and the first new children’s hospice developed in Ireland in more than 15 years. For families across the western seaboard who have been travelling hundreds of kilometres to Dublin to access specialist palliative care for their children, it is genuinely life-changing.

Funded by Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, the €20 million facility will be built at Moneen in Castlebar and will serve children with life-limiting conditions and their families across eight counties. The sod is due to be turned next month, with construction expected to begin in January 2027. If everything goes to plan, the hospice will open its doors in 2029.

Built around families, by families

What makes this project particularly remarkable is how it came to be designed. Families who will one day use the service worked alongside clinicians to shape every detail — from a canopy over the front entrance to a shower just inside the front door and a hydrotherapy pool. These aren’t small things. For a parent arriving exhausted and frightened with a sick child, they matter enormously.

The 36,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art building will include:

• Eight en-suite bedrooms with private garden or patio access

• Four family accommodation suites

• Sensory rooms and sensory gardens

• Dedicated children and young adult spaces

• Teaching and education facilities

• Reflection and quiet rooms

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill welcomed the milestone. “No family should face additional challenges in accessing the care and support they need because of where they live,” she said. “Planning permission brings us another important step closer to seeing the Sunflower Children’s Hospice open its doors and providing a lasting service to families across the West of Ireland.”

The human cost of not having this

Behind the planning documents and the fundraising figures are real families who know exactly what it means to travel to Dublin for inpatient hospice care when your child is seriously ill. Chuck Dunford from Ballina, Co. Mayo, lost his son Kevin in April 2014 after years of making that journey.

“Today’s planning permission announcement is a monumental step forward for children and families across the western seaboard,” he said. “For us as a family, it is lovely to think that with the building of the Sunflower Children’s Hospice, other children and families in the future will not have to face the same challenges as we did.”

Linda Cox from Lisacul, Co. Roscommon, whose 12-year-old son Daire needs around-the-clock care, described it as an emotional day. “It will take the sting out of driving back and forth to Dublin,” she said. “It will really give families like ours breathing space, strength, and hope.”

A look at the planned new Sunflower Children’s Hospice building.

The fundraising drive continues

Since Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation unveiled its plans in November 2025, nearly €9 million has been raised through community and corporate fundraising. With the total development cost sitting at €20 million, there’s still a significant way to go — and the Foundation is asking people to keep giving.

Martina Jennings, CEO of Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, put it plainly. “The fundraising doesn’t stop here. We need to continue our fundraising drive over the next two years to ensure the doors open and that these vital services can be delivered for generations to come.”

Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation has been operating since 1993 and has supported more than 25,000 patients and their families across Mayo and Roscommon. All of its services are provided free of charge. The Sunflower Children’s Hospice will be a continuation of that ethos — specialist care, built with heart, for families who deserve better than a six-hour round trip when their child needs them most.

To support the fundraising campaign or find out more, visit sunflowerchildrenshospice.ie.