Mr. Michael Fitzgerald:

For the sake of accuracy, eight residents remain in Owenacurra. We have been working very closely with the families and the people involved, in the first instance, on the basis of their will and preference as well as their clinical needs. One has to take all of those issues into account when considering what the best placement for people is. Some of the people have moved to nursing-home care because that was the care required. Others have been moved to mental health facilities. The Deputy is right in that, as we have said earlier, some of those mental health facilities are certainly in need of refurbishment or replacement, but that is the care that the people may need. I am not aware of any specific incidents of people saying they were dissatisfied or unhappy and I would certainly be very concerned if they were.

We have an aftercare plan very specifically to ensure that wherever people go, even if it is to a nursing home, they are still provided with a specialist service appropriate to their needs and that there is follow through to make sure that they settle well in their new environment. Of course, it is not ideal that we would move people into any place other than a brand new facility. We do not have such a new facility at this point in time. At the same time, it would not be appropriate to leave people in circumstances in which a building is not fit for purpose in the context of being able to be refurbished in any kind of realistic manner.