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

I want to return to Deputy Cairns's point on the consistency with reports. I do not want to harp on about the point about writing reports but not being responsible for what happens afterwards but I do want to examine the issues around consistency and the implications of report findings. The commission will be aware that the HSE has repeatedly made reference to concerns raised in the commission's inspection report on Owenacurra in 2021 regarding the size of some of the rooms. As an architect who worked in healthcare, this was of particular interest to me. This was one of the key reasons for closing the service and for saying that the building was not usable., yet when I looked into this further, through FOIs and parliamentary questions, it turned out that each of the rooms in a service in Skibbereen, known as Saol Nua, is smaller than each of the rooms in Owenacurra. The commission has not raised any concerns around room size in its latest available inspection report on Saol Nua. This is even more confusing because in an inspection report for Owenacurra, the commission stated in 2017 that residents had "ample" personal space. This was at a time some residents were sharing rooms. There were 24 residents there at that time and that was nowhere near the case in 2020 and 2021. I also note the many concerns, already discussed, that the commission has raised about wards in St. Stephen's Hospital but it tends not to mention the fact in those reports that residents share rooms, with the obvious privacy and dignity issues that go with that. We have Owenacurra residents being told, with reference to the commission's reports, that they would be better off moving from a single room in a town centre location to a shared dormitory in a remote, long-stay ward. I visited St. Stephen's Hospital in order that I could understand what we were talking about and I found it to be very remote. The concerns in the commission's reports seem remarkably inconsistent and it does not seem to be willing to engage with that issue. These concerns can be used and interpreted by the HSE in any way it chooses to justify closures or any other action it wants to take.