Family support service to close
And in a move which has been described as “a joke” by a Dublin city councillor, the women will instead be offered a service in a “home setting” despite having no homes to go to.
Eglinton House, at 75 Eglinton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, is to close as soon as the last resident gives birth.
Staff working at the Health Service Executive funded service were told just five months ago there were plans to expand and a manager was appointed last October.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday, Sinn Féin Dublin north inner city councillor Christy Burke said it was “appalling and disgraceful” pregnant women were to lose much-needed accommodation.
“That house is a comfort zone for homeless women who become pregnant. The service was supposed to expand but now we have the doomsday situation where it is to close when the last women gives birth.”
He said he saw no point in providing a community-based service in a home setting when the women were homeless and called on the HSE to rethink their plans to expand the service.
The HSE said it is “finalising plans to move the family support services available at Eglington House into the community as part of an enhancement of the service”.
