Ms Susan Cliffe:

Governance and management structures are key. In the case of Beneavin Manor, we had serious concerns, which led to the inspections that took place in July 2023 and January 2024. When we went back out to check to see if the centre had followed through on its commitments to address the issues in November, we found that things had improved. All of these inspections were unannounced. That question was raised. Some 85% of all our inspections were unannounced, as were 91% of inspections in Emeis Ireland centres since 2022. They do not know we are coming. We found improvements but that governance structure broke down after our inspection in November. At that time, there was also significant recruitment of staff, the loss of staff who were established in the centre and an increasing dependency of residents.