Nursing home wants to evict woman, 77

A 77-year-old woman faces eviction from a nursing home after the HSE demanded she pay €38,000 per year for her accommodation because she was the owner of the family farm for “less than a minute” before it was transferred to her son, the High Court has heard.

Martina Noonan’s son Stephen, aged 38, has brought a challenge to the HSE’s refusal to approve an application under the Government’s Fair Deal scheme, which provides payments for people who cannot afford long-term care in nursing homes.

The HSE says Mrs Noonan, who has lived in Ard na Greine nursing home in Enniscrone, Sligo, for over three years, can afford to pay €736 per week because she had owned the 56-acre family farm at Rinroe, Enniscrone.