Cork fire: HSE defends level of security at St Kevin’s

The HSE has defended the level of security it had in place at the St Kevin’s unit in Cork, but would not reveal how much it had cost in recent years.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner yesterday, the HSE said only that the cost of security at the former mental health facility had been appropriate.

The Irish Examiner had previously published figures, revealed to the Dáil’s public accounts committee in 2008, showing that between 2002 and 2007, €1,590,975 was spent on security at the site — over €300,000 a year, or nearly €6,000 a week.