Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is Mr. Kiernan saying that, as it stands at the moment, the responsibility is with the provider even though the provider has done nothing to maintain the place?

Its failure to maintain it has led to it having to close. The provider rules the roost and patients have no say.

I fear that this is happening in other areas. Some patients have no choice but to go through the fair deal scheme, under duress, because they have no choice to go to a centre that mirrors the way they were. The Mental Health Commission does fabulous work. It is like the NCT centre for mental health services. It provides recommendations about what has to be fixed or addressed. It is common sense. If those issues are addressed, a car or truck will pass the NCT. However, part of the system troubles me. Recommendations are made to an approved body. If it was any other system, if a report stated that all the hinges on the doors needed to be changed and that the switches are not great, those are simple things to address. If they are not being done, even when people are being told again and again to do it, where is the line drawn? I hate to say, "I told you so". The HSE is sticking its tongue out to the commission and saying that it is just going to ignore the recommendations. In the middle of that, over the course of five or six years, the patients suffer. Do the witnesses understand what I am saying? The commission produced reports on the Owenacurra Centre in 2016, 2018, 2020 and again in 2021. There are similar recommendations going back to 2016.