
Attempts are being made to close down the St Mary of the Angels facility in Beaufort by stealth because it is deemed to be a congregated setting and the health service is determined to move away from that model of care, a Kerry TD has claimed in the Dáil.
Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said the facility once catered for up to 80 people with mental, physical and intellectual disabilities but now, if someone dies, that bed is closed down.
“That is wrong because this place was donated to the health service by the Doyle family. It includes a significant amount of land where all kinds could be built on it, instead of trying to close it,” he said.
The Kerry TD shared the plight of one resident in St Mary of the Angels who is not able to look after herself while her mother is living alone.
“That resident is now being told that she will have to leave and go to one of the most northern counties in the 26 counties, not 10 miles away from the border.

“The mother is against this move because she has not got the facility or wherewithal to travel that distance or bring her daughter home.
“That is what is happening now to a family in south Kerry. This is the deal they are being offered by the HSE,” he stated.
Deputy Healy-Rae insisted that there is a place for facilities like St Mary of the Angels, where there are all types of services, including a swimming pool, that can manage a number of people.
The Kerry TD said it is unacceptable that parents in their 70s and 80s are trying to look after themselves and they are simply not physically able to manage their adult children with special needs them anymore because they have to be lifted and may have to be restrained.
“The biggest worry they have is when they go to their grave, who will look after their son or daughter who is not well or has never been well since birth. These parents have gone through so much that you would think that when they reach 70 years of age the State and the HSE, which gets so much money to provide help to everyone, would look after them,” he said.
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