PAC asked to investigate sale of Carrigaline property to HSE
Centre The Owenacurra In Midleton
A decision to establish a new 24-hour mental health facility in Carrigaline while the fate of the Owenacurra centre in Midleton remains unclear is “not in line" with the Government's policy, according to one of its own TDs.
Locals in Midleton have been campaigning for the retention of the Owenacurra community mental health facility since last autumn after the HSE said it had “no choice” but to close the centre because all of its buildings needed to be demolished.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recently received correspondence from local Green Party councillor Liam Quaide requesting that it investigate the Carrigaline decision and the procurement process involved which saw the new building, a former B&B, purchased from the family of a senior HSE official employed with Cork/Kerry Mental Health Services.
Advocates for the 20-bed Owenacurra facility, which was to close on October 31 last but which remains operational at present with roughly 11 residents remaining, say that its closure will leave up to 100,000 people without a 24-hour staffed placement in their region.
Neasa Hourigan, a Green Party TD and a member of the PAC, said that the spending decisions being made regarding Cork’s mental health services are “totally opaque”.
She said that the decision to close Owenacurra “might be a policy decision but it is definitely not in line with Government policy”, adding that the reason the PAC has received so much correspondence regarding the centre — which would typically be considered outside its remit — is because “the hope was that the HSE might answer the committee of public accounts if it would not answer anybody else”.
“Ultimately East Cork will end up with no 24-hour supported bed,” she said.
“We still do not really understand [the decision] because the HSE simply has not provided the information, what the spending decisions have been along the way in respect of those buildings.”
Previously, the HSE had faced criticism for refusing to provide information regarding specifications and dimensions for prospective replacements for Owenacurra due to the “significant resource implications” of complying with the request.
In his submission to the PAC, Mr Quaide made reference to the refusal of Cork/Kerry Mental Health Services to release information regarding the conditions of those other premises due to the data being of “a non-personal nature”.
He described the failure of the HSE to locate records relevant to the Owenacurra centre four months after a series of Freedom of Information requests were made last August as displaying a “remarkable pattern of obstruction of access”, something he believes is indicative of the HSE “running down the clock on this closure”.
“This closure constitutes a human rights issue,” Mr Quaide told the .
“It deprives people with the most severe mental health difficulties in East Cork the right to live in their own community,” he said.