Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our witnesses. As Deputy Catherine Murphy mentioned, we are holding this session so we can do a deep dive into particular CHOs. I would like to direct my questions to the senior national management present and to the Department because we have done a little work on the CHOs across a number of committees.

In the past decade, the HSE invested only €428,000 in upgrades to the Owenacurra Centre in Midleton. The centre accommodated 20 residents until 2021 in a community-based town centre location. It was considered an excellent service. I talked to the residents myself. They were exceptionally happy there and many had been living in the centre for more than a decade. By contrast, the HSE invested far more money in institutional dormitory-style, out-of-town wards in the same ten-year period, which I have also visited in the past year. For instance, the HSE spent €1.9 million on St. Catherine's ward and €2.9 million on wards and a day centre in St. Stephen's Hospital.

We also learned recently through freedom of information, FOI, records released to me, almost a year late, that out of the eight mental health facilities in CHO 4 discussed by management in 2019, the Owenacurra Centre was the only one mentioned as possible for sale. I will add that having talked about this issue a number of times at committees, that is directly in contrast to what we were told during committee meetings, which is that it had never been discussed that the site might be for sale. The FOI records indicate that the HSE advised limiting capital expenditure on the excellent service at Owenacurra, the replacement of premises, such as Mount Alvernia in Mallow and unit 1 in St Stephen's at a cost of millions was mentioned but there was not one mention, in any of the FOIs or parliamentary questions, of replacing Owenacurra, or replacing that service, or making it so that that service could continue. All of this suggests that there was an agenda over a significant amount of time during the past decade to close Owenacurra long before the closure was actually announced last year and, when it was announced, many of those residents were given around three months to get out of their home of more than a decade.

We are way past a discussion around the quality of the building at Owenacurra and whether it was in good nick. It is perfectly clear from the FOIs I have received that there was tacit agreement by CHO management in Cork, and by estates, that they were going to run that service into the ground and sell off the site. That is the reality of the decision-making. The HSE was going to move residents to substandard premises, to shared accommodation and shared rooms in places very far away from Midleton, their families and even a local shop or community group. They were going to be cut off from their communities and put into shared rooms. I want to ask senior HSE management about this. Mr. Reid is moving on soon and I would particularly like to hear from him because this concerns estates and capital funding. I would like to hear from the CFO and the CEO. Do they stand by that decision-making?