70 Jobs available at Bunclody Nursing Home

Recruitment is to begin within the next week for a total of seventy positions at a brand new state of the art nursing home in Bunclody. Work is currently ongoing to transform the old Millrace Hotel in Bunclody into the SignaCare Care Home and the owners say that things are really starting to come together with late July in mind for an opening date.

Initially, the transformation of the former hotel into a nursing home was met with some opposition locally, with Bunclody residents concerned that the lack of a hotel would do detrimental damage to the town and result in a loss of employment. However, when it became clear that the hotel would not remain, nursing home operator John Dargan was firm that he would be intending to provide a much needed shot in the arm for the local economy.

It's a busy time for Mr Dargan, who has also recently taken over the running of a nursing home in New Ross which had been under the management of the banks for the past ten years, as well as having a nursing home in Killerig, Co Carlow, all under the SignaCare brand.

'Things are progressing very well in Bunclody,' Mr Dargan said. 'The vast majority of the main works will be completed by the end of May, then we'll be looking to fit it out in June. At the moment, we're hoping we might be able to open the doors by late June or early August, once we get HIQA approval and that type of thing.'

Mr Dargan says that he is hoping that the new Bunclody care home will be a real 'game-changer' in terms of nursing homes and that it will offer an 'enhanced product' to clients, including a state of the art, highly accredited 'memory care section'.

'We're hopeful that it will provide a great boost for Bunclody, particularly in terms of employment,' he continued. 'When fully operational, there will be around 70 staff and we'll be starting the recruitment process in the next week or two. In addition to this, we've agreed to try and source all food and products required locally as much as possible to generate as much of a boost to the area as possible.'

Mr Dargan says that there is already considerable interest in the nursing home and he has encouraged anyone who may be interested in taking up a position there to email info@signacare.ie.

Local councillor Barbara Anne Murphy said that while the loss of the hotel continues to be a major issue for Bunclody, the new nursing home will certainly be a welcome development for the town.

'It's great to see that they're ready to recruit,' she said. 'We're delighted to see anything that will create more jobs locally. I think most of the workers who have been renovating the building are local as well, which also provides a wonderful boost.'

Meanwhile, Cllr Murphy says that she is continuing to discuss the matter of accommodation for tourists with interested parties in the hopes of achieving some kind of replacement for the Millrace Hotel. It had initially been touted that an anonymous businessman had expressed an interest in building some kind of boutique hotel for the area, however, as yet, this hasn't materialised.

Original source: https://www.independent.ie/regionals/enniscorthyguardian/news/new-nursing-home-to-create-70-jobs-38062437.html