A proposed £70 million private hospital for Galway is set to proceed after the city council voted in favour of a material contravention of the City Development Plan.
Councillors voted 13-2 to allow the development near the main Galway-Dublin road, at Doughiska on the outskirts of the city.
The project required the support of 11 of the 15 councillors as the land was zoned for agricultural use. The developers threatened to withdraw the plan after just 10 members supported it when it came before the local authority in January.
The application, by Blackrock Medical Partners, Rathgar, Dublin, was for a 100-bedroom hospital in a one-, two-and four-storey development. It will include radiology and radiotherapy departments, angiography and physiotherapy facilities, plus five operating theatres.
It will be the first hospital to benefit from recent changes in the Government's Finance Bill, which allow funding for private hospitals provided 20 per cent of beds are made available to public patients.
The material contravention was supported by the five Fianna Fail, four Progressive Democrat and four Fine Gael members of the local authority, with the two Labour members voting against.
Cllr John Mulholland (FG), who was out of the State in January, voted in favour, as did his party colleagues, Mr Padraic McCormack TD and Cllr Angela Lupton, who abstained from the previous vote.
The city manager, Mr John Tierney, recommended the material contravention, saying that concerns regarding car-parking and technical aspects of the project had been addressed by the planners.
Ald Catherine Connolly (Labour) said the City Development Plan was open to abuse, when the rich sector of society were able to lobby the council twice within six months.
"We have appalling waiting lists, and over 40 per cent of the people in this region are on medical cards," she said. "How are they going to benefit from this hospital?"
Mr McCormack said he still had concerns about the way the planning application had been brought forward.