State paid nearly €5m to Leas Cross home

CONTROVERSIAL nursing home Leas Cross was bankrolled to the tune of nearly €5 million by the Department of Health, figures obtained by the Irish Examiner reveal.

The monies paid to the home’s owners, over six-and-a-half years, went towards subsidising residents and contracting beds.

The State funding accrued by owner John Aherne varied considerably over the lifetime of the Swords’ facility, before its forced closure last year, after a damning RTÉ documentary revealed neglect and abuse there.

In 1999, not long after Taoiseach Bertie Ahern officially opened Leas Cross, €111,295 was paid out by the department to the business through the Northern Area Health Board.

Subventions costs of €40,809 were also paid, while Leas Cross received another 70,486 directly for contracted beds — of which there were 30 in total at that time.

However, the amounts given to Leas Cross for elderly care rose massively thereafter, peaking at €1.34m in 2004.

A full list, obtained by the Irish Examiner, of each month’s payments by the department, since the opening of the home, showed relatively high amounts also paid for short stays at the north Dublin facility.

In November 2002, the centre was paid €68,463.84 in contract bed payments for three residents’ care over 64 days.

By last year, when undercover filming exposed disturbing conditions at the home, there were 111-beds at Leas Cross. The facility closed in August 2005, following the controversy, receiving €694,761 in subsidies and bed costs from the Health Service Executive for that year.

Owner Mr Ahern claimed last month that Leas Cross had become an “overflow” facility for hospitals, and blamed deteriorating conditions on the block-booking of beds by health chiefs.

Many patients with “complex mental and medical care needs” were relocated from the nearby psychiatric hospital, St Ita’s.

Mr Aherne contended that health chiefs used his

facility as an extension of hospitals. Health boards contracting excessive numbers of beds made it necessary to “tighten” the assessment of residents’ needs. According to the owner, a total of €4,897,967.21 was paid to the home since 1999.

The amounts given to Leas Cross in subvention costs and contracting beds during the period included:

1999: €111,295

2000: €325,945

2001: €456,261

2002: €729,357

2003: €1,239,652

2004: €1,340,694

2005: €694,761

Relatives of former residents have expressed anger that millions of euro was paid to the home.