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

That decision sets aside all best practice in terms of our national policies and clinical advice. In July and August this year, after an intervention from the Information Commissioner, I eventually received a large volume of freedom of information, FOI, records which, by the way, I was told at first did not exist. Within the records we found evidence of two senior clinicians from different disciplines voicing serious concerns about the possible closure of Owenacurra and the impact on residents and, of course, the impact on the wider day service for people in the east Cork area. Now, we are left with almost no services and certainly no 24-hour residential services in the whole of east Cork.

We found records on the possible sale of Owenacurra being discussed by senior management. We found records on one key decision-maker who was complaining last July that there are only seven placements available in St. Stephen's Hospital for Owenacurra residents, again in a ward setting, which is absolutely contrary to national policy.

What is actually most striking is the complete absence of records. I would have assumed this is of great concern to the national running of the HSE. For example, there is no record of any clinical decision-making process that led up to the Owenacurra centre closure. There is no serious available and transparent decision-making process there that actually talks about the patients' welfare.

This is about estates. This is, and we talked about this at many committees, like moving people around on a chessboard or playing Monopoly and saying I am going to buy a building over here. We have building reports issued by HSE estates in June 2021. Then, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Scully and their colleague, Mr. Morrison, held a completely unminuted meeting on 22 June and decided to close that service. We have no minutes and we have no clinical intervention. I am sorry, but just to be clear, the HSE is fine with that.