Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 15 Dec 1993

Vol. 138 No. 14

Adjournment Matters. - Matters of Concern to Members.

Mr. Roche

I thank the Chair. I understand the reasons the Chair has forced me to avail of this rather unsatisfactory means of highlighting the Clonmannon issue.

Members of the House will be aware of the ongoing problems in Clonmannon retirement village at Ashford, County Wicklow, which should be the ideal retirement home. It is a beautiful campus of self contained bungalows ranged around the old home of Chester Beatty, which is now a nursing home. The dream of a peaceful retirement for those who bought into Clonmannon has turned into an unbelievable nightmare. Without wishing to sensationalise the issue, the dispute in Clonmannon has reached the point where the health and, I believe, the lives of some of the residents are under threat.

Clonmannon was built some years ago by Retirement Ireland Ltd. A second company, Home Affairs, provided the service, care and management of the complex. Retirement Ireland and its sister company went into liquidation in 1989. They were taken over by a company called Rayhill which brought in a new company — also closely related to it — called Hilltop Catering to take over the care and management of the complex. For some time things went well but, following a breakdown in management and a series of extraordinarily tangled litigation, the quality of the service began to dramatically decline.

In addition to declining services, a range of charges were introduced and imposed on residents. They had to pay for things which were previously understood to be part of their expensive care contracts. Where the nursing services in the nursing home were, under the terms of the care contracts, always made available to the residents of the estate, they were now charged on an individual basis. People who required daily injections were invoiced at the rate of £10 per injection. When people were supplied with support stockings, which had been laundered, they were charged £10. When sanitary and incontinence pads were delivered, they were charged £10 for delivery. They were charged £3 for nail clipping. Hilltop Catering also announced some time ago that they were, in addition to the individual charges, imposing a 3 per cent across the board charge.

While this was going on there were very odd occurrences within the operations of the two companies involved. Assets from Rayhill, the property owning company, which was involved in litigation at the time——

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

The Senator's time is up.

Mr. Roche

A Leas-Chathaoirligh, this is a complex issue.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

The Senator will appreciate it is the rule of the House.

Mr. Roche

I do. The assets were being transferred. The transfer of assets frightened the residents who withheld their care charges. Since then they have suffered the following consequences: water supply to a number of the houses has been cut off; services from the nursing home have been cut off; catering has been cut off; the telephones which operate through the central switchboard have been cut off. There have been threats to cut off the electricity. Public lighting in the estate has been cut off. There have been two or three serious accidents among the residents of the estate. I believe there is a thinly veiled threat to cut off electricity over Christmas and to interfere with the sanitary services.

As a member of local authorities, the health board and as a Member of the Oireachtas, I am frustrated that there appears to be no statutory agency empowered to intervene. I ask that our concerns in this matter be brought to the attention of the Minister for Health and the Minister for the Environment because public health and safety is involved. I also ask that the Minister for Enterprise and Employment be requested to appoint an examiner or an inspector as appropriate, to look into the tangled and extraordinarily complex affairs of these companies.

The Seanad adjourned at 8.50 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 16 December 1993.