Minister refuses to engage 'any further' on closure of Owenacurra centre

Mental Health Minister Mary Butler said decision to close facility would not be reversed

The Owenacurra Centre in Midleton: Mental Health Minister Butler previously said that keeping the centre open would not be 'appropriate or viable', and added that two independent reports had concluded that a refurbishment alone would not bring Owenacurra up to standard.

The minister for mental health has refused to engage "any further" on the closure of the Owenacurra centre, despite a Dáil committee calling for that decision to be reversed.

Mary Butler has faced repeated calls for a u-turn on the decision, which will see residents moved to different parts of Cork, despite many having lived there for years.

Yesterday, in a move to bring an end to the row, she wrote to the chair of the Oireachtas health committee Seán Crowe, telling him the decision would not be reversed.

“I do not propose to engage on this matter any further beyond setting out the facts in my detailed response to the committee on 22 April," she said.

She had previously said that keeping the centre open would not be “appropriate or viable”, and added that two independent reports had concluded that a refurbishment alone would not bring Owenacurra up to standard.

That statement was issued in response to the all-party Oireachtas health committee calling for Ms Butler to reverse the decision to close Owenacurra.

Mr Crowe wrote to Ms Butler this week rebuffing her statement on refurbishments, stating that “no independent reports have, in fact, supported the HSE’s position that the Owenacurra building issues are beyond repair”.

He said the only document which concluded that Owenacurra is beyond repair is an “undated internal HSE estates department report”.

Mr Crowe added that in October of last year, three families of Owenacurra’s residents wrote to the HSE’s chief officer for Cork/Kerry Michael Fitzgerald requesting an independent structural engineer’s report on the facility, only to receive a reply five weeks later saying that suggestion would “not be viable”.

He said, in response to Ms Butler’s assertion that the “will and preference” of the Owenacurra residents has been “paramount” in all decisions taken by the HSE, that the “will and preference of current residents, as expressed to members of the health committee... is to remain in the Owenacurra centre”.

He further described as “concerning” the minister’s revelation in her statement last week that the HSE is “currently sourcing” a replacement property for Owenacurra in the same area, saying that action had been carried out without any consultation with the residents and their families as to its location.

The committee chair said the proposed purchase “is also concerning in the context of remarkable sums of money being spent over the past two years... on other mental health facilities in Cork”, citing the example of Glenwood House in Carrigaline, a prospective Owenacurra replacement, which has had €1.25m spent on it to date and which remains closed 16 months after its purchase.

Mr Crowe concluded his letter by calling for a second time, in the name of the committee, for the minister to reverse the Owenacurra decision.

“The reasons advanced by Cork/Kerry HSE for closing this highly valued service would, if applied elsewhere, lead to widespread closures of other mental health facilities, and are not credible grounds for such a drastic service decision,” he said.