Irish Examiner view: Actions can have unexpected consequences

The fate of small nursing homes and Dursey Island's travails remind us good intentions may not lead where we want to go

Islanders and workers try to get the boat ashore after it arrived on the mainland in West Cork from Dursey Island late last week. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

We are all familiar with the phrase that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but there have been two particularly regrettable and unfortunate examples this week.

While our national policy is to move away from large institutions in the nursing home sector precisely the opposite is happening. Small nursing homes are closing and ever-bigger establishments are opening, warns the Health Information and Quality Authority. Smaller homes often struggle financially or owners cannot find someone to take them over on retirement. 

The result is consolidation, and increased scale.

Meanwhile the long-running saga of the stalled, and stalling, attempts to repair the Dursey cable car mean that Ireland’s most south-westerly island may become uninhabited for the first time in 420 years before Christmas with the departure of its last full-time inhabitant and a couple who own a holiday home. 

Cork County Council has been unable to fulfil its promise to re-open the crossing, which has been operational since 1969 when there were 50 residents. 

Now the cattle and the sheep may face a lonely winter before repairs can be tackled again.