With the agreement of the House, I will share my time with Senator Ross.
Adjournment Matters. - Clonmannon (Wicklow) Retirement Village.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
Is that agreed? Agreed.
Over the last 16 months a bewildering amount has been written and spoken about Clonmannon Retirement Village. In fact, the plight of the villagers was highlighted on four separate occasions in this House and it is because of the action of Members on all sides of the House that finally there is some light at the end of the tunnel, but not enough.
During the last 16 months the question has been approached from a variety of potential ways of resolving it. There was an attempt, for example, in November and December last year by the Eastern Health Board to intervene by putting a management team into the nursing home at Clonmannon. However, that attempt only ended in the nursing home being closed. Clonmannon was the subject of a number of court hearings during the last 16 months. Many of these battles were between the then owner, Mr. George Robinson and the Corneill family, the minority shareholders. That matter was resolved in the courts by a private agreement and payment in July of 1994. There was a separate and very valiant court action by Mr. Lance Hall, one of the residents of Clonmannon.
In addition to the court hearings Clonmannon featured in hearings before the Employment Appeals Tribunal where seven of the nursing staff brought separate actions challenging the relevant companies for redundancy claims; all seven won. There was an additional hearing before a rights commissioner in which an award for compensation for unfair dismissal was made to a former worker who, incidentally, at one stage was illegally imprisoned by the management of Clonmannon. For the record, I wish to put a number of other items in this saga before the House, before calling on the Minister to take a specific action.
Clonmannon has been mentioned on a number of occasions in Seanad Éireann. There was, for example, in December 1993 an Adjournment debate in the House. Early in 1994, following the closing of the nursing home and various outrageous actions including, for example, the cutting off of water and electricity to the elderly residents by the so-called care company, the matter was again raised on two separate occasions in this House. On the second of these occasions, an Adjournment debate, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Rourke, indicated in very strong terms her personal views, and indeed her personal revulsion, regarding the activities of the company and specifically the named individuals who were charged with the management of the village.
In March 1994 a deputation was received by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Rourke, and senior officials. I attended that delegation and I came away hoping that the Department of Enterprise and Employment would take some action. Those hopes, however, were crushed because at the end of March 1994 the file on Clonmannon Retirement Village was returned to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Deputy Quinn. Over the next month there was an extraordinary blizzard of correspondence between myself and the Minister. By letter of 23 March the Minister was encouraged by me and by others to appoint either a designated official or an examiner under company law to investigate the very serious and well documented allegations, including allegations of operating with fraudulent intent by Hilltop Catering, its associated companies and its management.
That letter was acknowledged by the Minister in April. Unfortunately however, the Minister and his Department took the extraordinary view that it was not their responsibility to take action on these issues and they suggested that the elderly people resident in Clonmannon should try and proceed the matter through the courts. While the correspondence was winging its way between the Seanad and the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Clonmannon itself was back in the courts. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, was again contacted and was sent a further submission, clearly showing that his Department had responsibilities under company law to act in relation to the company. The Minister unfortunately decided not to act.
On 27 July 1994 there was a substantial feature in The Sunday Times on Clonmannon. This is one of several features that appeared in a number of journals at the time but was the first one to appear in a British paper. The Minister was again exhorted to take action. Again he suggested that his Department could not do so. I personally asked the Minister and his officials to contact the British authorities because it had come to my attention that an undischarged bankrupt issue was involved here and that there was certainly an interest in the British courts in the affairs of people involved with Clonmannon.
Throughout the summer of last year the issue heated up. On 29 June the Corneill family and George Robinson reached a settlement in which £125,000 was passed over and Mr. Robinson withdrew from the issue. On the same day, according to a press report, Allied Irish Banks registered a charge on Clonmannon village with Rayhill Property Company Limited. This was the first of a number of such charges registered throughout the balance of last year.
Early in August the village was back in the news. The solicitors for the Corneill family served a formal notice of forfeiture of lease on all the residents of Clonmannon. This was the second time they attempted eviction procedures against people who had paid, in some cases, £50,000 and more for short term leaseholds. There was a series of further press reports and a special programme on RTE.
The Minister was again approached and indicated that there was not a reasonable basis for intervention under the company law code. This prompted some further heated exchanges between myself and the Minister. It is an open secret that our relationship deteriorated very dramatically at this time. It was my belief that serious fraud was taking place and that there was a serious dereliction of duty on behalf of the Department of Enterprise and Employment.
In the days which followed there was considerable revulsion at the inactivity of the Department. The local priest, Fr. Arthur O'Neill from Rathnew, who himself had been the subject of much criticism and outrageous smears by the company, had a petition signed at churches on 27 and 28 August. There was a very substantial rally outside Clonmannon on 3 September and, at last, the Department of Enterprise and Employment woke up to the fact that there just might be something wrong in Clonmannon.
The Minister indicated in a press statement issued that week that he would now give serious attention to the issue and that there could be good news concerning the village. This prompted a suggestion by the Minister and his Department that mediation should take place. The Minister's flirtation with mediation lasted a number of weeks and, thankfully, at the end of this period the Minister came, in my view, to his senses and indicated in early October that, from the information supplied to him, he was appointing a designated official under section 19 of the Companies Act, 1990, to examine the affairs of the companies involved in Clonmannon.
The designated official commenced his investigations very quickly and he seems to have been doing a very thorough job. I have made very substantial personal submissions. I have submitted documentation, including, for example, a cancelled cheque which never went through the accounts of the bank of the companies involved but ended up, nonetheless, in Allied Irish Banks in Manchester. That cheque was made out for over £17,000 and never seemed to appear in the accounts of the company. I also produced other evidence.
However, in the period that the investigator has been doing his very thorough job, the strain and stress on the elderly residents has taken its toll. Husbands and wives who retired to Clonmannon for the final years of their lives have been forcibly separated; one spouse has had to go to a nursing home and move out of the village. Some have faced more permanent separation. The death toll at Clonmannon has been mounting alarmingly throughout this affair. Because of the advanced ages of the residents, it would be wrong to suggest that all the deaths could be attributed to stress, but certainly ten people have passed away since this dispute commenced and there is no doubt in my mind, without in any way wishing to sensationalise the matter, that this stress has had a part to play.
I believe that the evidence of fraud in Clonmannon is so self-evident that no further delay is necessary. I have submitted to the Minister and to the official involved clear evidence that company law is being consistently and flagrantly abused as a shield behind which activities which are clearly fraudulent in intent are taking place. I have produced proof of funds being siphoned out of the company and out of the country. I have produced clear evidence to the Revenue Commissioners and they accept there is a need for thorough investigation by them.
It is clear that the management of this company is not willing to operate within code of civilised behaviour. It is equally clear that the greed of the family involved in running the company will not be satisfied until all the residents at Clonmannon are driven out of their homes and their property expropriated. We cannot and should not tolerate this. I would ask the Minister if the investigation could be brought to a speedy conclusion and if the matter of litigation could be put in hand without any further delay.
May I share my time with Senator Ross?
An Leas-Chathaoirligh
Your time is up but I will allow Senator Ross two minutes.
Thank you, Sir. I thank Senator Roche for sharing his time. I pay tribute to him for leading this battle on the issue of Clonmannon and its residents. I am not familiar with the details of the allegations in the statements he made but I know that the underlying issue — that old people are vulnerable in a nursing home and are being exploited — is beyond dispute. I know from representations made to me and to others that there are separated families here and old people who are vulnerable and they have had their water and ESB supplies cut off. This is totally unacceptable in Irish society as we know it.
There are complications but the problem is that the details of the rights and wrong do not matter that much. What matters is that old people are in trouble and need speedy action to remedy their very acute physical problems. That speedy action has not been forthcoming.
As Senator Roche so rightly said, this problem has been going on since 1993. What we need from the Minister is not for him to send in an official, for whom we will have to wait to report, but a reply, a timetable and action as soon as possible. There are old people looking to the Minister and the Government for action to give them comfort. It is no good falling behind bureaucracy and red tape and saying we are sending in an official who will carry out an examination. We want the Minister to give them the reassurance that they can live the rest of their days in comfort with electricity, water and all the things people regard as human rights. I ask the Minister to come to Clonmannon, talk to some of the residents and see for herself how bad the situation is.
On a very personal level I sympathise with the appalling situation in which the residents of Clonmannon have found themselves. As Senators know, I used to work with the housing advice organisation, Threshhold, which dealt with people being evicted and experiencing housing difficulties of various kinds. What is happening in Clonmannon matches some of the worst cases with which I have ever had to deal in my time with Threshhold. As a fellow human being, I sympathise with these people.
This has been very sensitive and complex from a legal point of view because of the various cases involved. The background to these cases has been raised on a number of occasions in the Seanad, particularly by Senator Roche and I will not go into all the details now.
The Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, appointed an authorised officer, Mr. Martin Cosgrove, under section 19 of the Companies Act on 7 October 1994 — this section requires books or documents relating to specified companies to be produced to the authorised officer in relation to matters under the Act — to inquire into Rayhill Property Company Limited. Home Affairs Limited. Hilltop Catering Limited, and Retirement International Ireland Limited. It is important to note that such investigations primarily involve only those issues which relate to the Companies Act. That is Mr. Cosgrove's legal brief.
Other issues have been alleged but they are not within the ministerial competence of Deputy Rabbitte. He is the appropriate Minister and in his absence abroad on official business I have been asked to take this Adjournment debate. The function of the authorised officer is to carry out the task assigned to him and to report to the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment with responsibility for Commerce, Science and Technology as soon as possible. That report has not yet been received but I understand completion and submission are imminent. As soon as it is received I am sure that the Minister will act on it as speedily as possible.
We all share the concern expressed about what is happening at Clonmannon. Because of the sensitive legal issues involved and the kind of allegations made, it is important for me not to comment further. The official inquiry will proceed in an objective and effective manner and there may be further litigation down the road. I am confident that my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will act very speedily when the report is received; I gather it is imminent.
I thank the Minister. I accept that her remarks are sincere. Senator Ross and I, as well as every public representative from Wicklow, are concerned about this issue. We have to give these people some hope. A number of them have just arrived in the House; unfortunately they are too late for the debate.
I ask the Minister to use her good offices to arrange for Senator Ross and me to meet the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, as soon as that report comes to hand. He knows, and the Minister knows, that we would not seek to release any information. That is important. The Revenue Commissioners are about to commence another investigation there; that is well known. I am not revealing any secrets but they have to wait until the other report is completed. I hope we can have a meeting with the Minister of State to expedite matters.
I am sure we can arrange such a meeting with the Senators and Deputies from County Wicklow. I know everybody who represents the area is very concerned about the situation the residents have found themselves in through no fault of their own. We are anxious, as a Government, for speedy action as soon as the report has been received. I am sure the Minister of State would be pleased to meet people to discuss what appropriate action will be taken on foot of the report.
The Seanad adjourned at 3.10 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Monday, 13 March 1995.