Women kicked and slapped at care home

Elderly women with serious intellectual disabilities have been kicked, slapped, dragged across the floor and treated as "non-persons" by health workers in a special HSE facility meant to ensure their care.

The situation, which occurred at the Aras Attracta home in Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s constituency in recent weeks, and has been described as “abuse” on a par with cases “in eastern Europe”, will be aired on Prime Time tonight.

A pre-showing of the RTÉ Investigations Unit programme shows three women, aged between 53 and 75, repeatedly mistreated by staff, despite regulations to protect vulnerable residents. While new measures were put in place last year to supposedly ensure such incidents do not occur, the RTÉ programme will note HIQA — the body responsible for preventing this — failed to uncover what was happening, meaning similar events could be taking place elsewhere.