Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for letting me in, as this is not my usual committee. I also thank the witnesses for appearing today. I will start by saying that over the past 18 months the Owenacurra issue has been before the Joint Committee on Health, the Committee of Public Accounts and the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health. It is a little disheartening to hear the witness citing the Mental Health Commission report. The Mental Health Commission has been before the Oireachtas about that particular report, and it was clear that it made no recommendation for closure. They also cited the building reports, because we have had no independent recommendation for closure or statement that there cannot be a retrofit. Until 2019, there were a number of reports providing options for upgrades, but the Department did not instigate those.

I will begin by going back to what has happened to the people for whom Owenacurra was their home. I went with the Joint Committee on Health to Owenacurra and met people and walked the building. Those who have campaigned to keep Owenacurra open have always emphasised that the decision on closure was not based on the best interests of the residents, and that it would affect a broader cohort of people in east Cork. It removed those beds from east Cork and there were no similar beds, and there are still no similar beds, in east Cork. I will start with that question of putting patients at the heart of the service. We know that Owenacurra stopped taking new referrals in February 2021. That was a few months prior to the closure announcement. A decision had obviously been made there, but we know that from the building reports anyway. We know this group of people have a high need and are often in the most severe levels of distress. They are often in precarious circumstances or living with elderly parents. We also know that a number of the cohort have been placed in nursing homes because there is no local community mental health placement option for them. That is unsuitable for them. They also often have to avail of short-term respite. One of my chief concerns in terms of mental health for a number of clients in the east Cork area, which I have raised through parliamentary questions, is that they have been placed in out of area residential mental health facilities or nursing homes, since Owenacurra centre stopped taking referrals in 2021. It is a relatively small number of clients, but I would like to start by getting an update from the witnesses. They probably have it because I keep asking these parliamentary questions. What is now happening to people in east Cork who need a full-time, long-term residential mental health service? What happens to people in east Cork now that Owenacurra is not taking any more residents?