Nursing home staff block firm removing items during sit-in

STAFF staging a sit-in over unpaid wages following the closure of a nursing home blocked a hospital supply company from entering the residential complex and removing items yesterday.

Over 50 staff at Tullybeg Retirement Village in Co Offaly have staged a sit-in at the premises since the owners, including a businessman at the centre of a money laundering investigation, announced the closure of the home nearly two months ago.

Half the staff have secured other jobs but still return to support those permanently manning the sit-in, which is done on a shift basis.

Staff who are owed wages, holiday pay and redundancy payments totalling €140,000 have expressed fears they will never receive their money, despite repeated assurances from the directors, Ted Cunningham, Liam Grennan and Irene Johnstone.

On Monday, bailiffs visited a golf course owned by the three directors adjacent to the nursing home. They took away items from buildings attached to the Beechlawn Golf Course and Driving Range.

In a further development yesterday, a lorry sent by Bray-based Irish Hospital Supplies Company arrived at the site. Staff spokeswoman Bridie Delaney said: “They came to take the beds, the chairs, whatever. We blocked them, they had no court order. At the end of the day whatever is in the home are the assets of the business.”

A staff member at IHS admitted she knew about the situation at Tullybeg and promised someone in management would return the call. This did not happen.

None of the three directors was available for comment yesterday.

Ms Delaney said the six-week fight for unpaid wages had temporarily destroyed the lives of the staff, most of them married women with families.

She said: “We’ve had no days off from this, no routine as such and nobody has gone on holiday. I don’t mean abroad but just for a few days up the country.”

They’ve haven’t heard anything since a week ago, when Mr Grennan issued his latest promise they’d be paid the money owed.

Mr Cunningham has not been heard from for some weeks. He was arrested in January by gardaí investigating the alleged laundering of money, some of which is believed to have come from last year’s Northern Bank raid in Belfast.

Just over two weeks ago, he married another of those arrested, Cathy Armstrong, a former Tullybeg manager, in a lavish ceremony and reception at the exclusive five-star Dromoland Castle. They are believed to be on honeymoon abroad.

A local auctioneer has the 58-acre Tullybeg complex up for sale with an asking price of €6.5 million.