James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Lahart for allowing me to have his slot and thank you, Chairman, for your co-operation.

This issue needs no introduction. It is extraordinarily serious. Mr. Fitzgerald and the representatives here with him from the HSE are very aware of just how concerned all of us in the constituency of Cork East are by what the HSE is trying to do in Midleton. I wish once again to express here today, as I have done both internally at our recent Oireachtas Members' health forum held in Ballincollig and previously at the committee, my extraordinary concern at the loss of this service in the Midleton area. The Owenacurra centre is an incredibly important supervised centre for residential mental healthcare. It is a facility that is deeply important to the availability of immediate mental healthcare services in the Midleton area, and I would be very concerned if the HSE were to withdraw it from the area for a number of reasons but particularly given the information that has come to light in recent days. We are told on the one hand that the HSE is moving away from this model yet, on the other, when you go down to Cork South-Central and look at what is happening in Carrigaline, there are other residential centres being financed by the HSE. I have a problem with that.

I have a problem with an area the size of east Cork being left with no residential mental healthcare service. It is unacceptable. I have outlined this to the HSE previously. A number of suggestions I have made to it include purchasing residential houses to provide care in the community. However, my understanding is it will only be getting one house, which will provide nowhere near the number of beds required given the existing level of demand in the Midleton area. This is a concern.

Another concern is communication with the families. I am hearing about many mixed messages from those with whom I am engaging. That is not good enough. The announcement was originally made just before the Dáil went into recess, and it is not fair on the residents of the Owenacurra centre that the situation has been playing out in this way for the past six months. Even if the HSE presented a plan for closure, the style in which the situation has been managed is unacceptable. That is wrong given the circumstances of the service users involved.

I have heard, as I am sure all here have, many concerns from residents' family members about where people will be relocated to. I wish to ask for a couple of points of clarification about the statistics. I will revert with a further round of questions later. How many service users' families has the HSE some degree of agreement with about relocating their family members? How many residents are in the centre today?