When will it be Christmas night? ”He looks up at me with such innocent excitement in his sapphire-blue eyes that I just have to hug him. I love his excitement, though I know it’s a symptom of his intellectual disability. He shouldn’t be that excited at 13.

Nine workers at a centre for people with intellectual disabilities, which is being investigated by gardaí after the sudden death of a resident in 2012, have been taken "off duty" after separate serious abuse allegations.

Aras Attracta is home to nearly a hundred people. It’s in Swinford in County Mayo. It has a website, part of the much larger HSE website.

Ireland’s health watchdog uncovered serious issues about how residents were treated at a HSE-run facility for adults with intellectual disabilities after being informed by whistleblowers of a death at the unit.