Home for visually impaired to be closed

RESIDENTS AND staff of Clonturk House, a home for visually impaired adult men in Drumcondra, have been told the facility is to shut at the end of May because it does not meet the required standards.

Yesterday’s decision leaves 24 staff facing redundancy and 14 blind and partially sighted residents, most between 60 and 90, not knowing where they are to be placed.

St Joseph’s Centre for the Visually Impaired, which took over managerial responsibility for Clonturk House from the Rosminian Fathers last June, said the home was in poor repair and had a leaking roof. St Joseph’s chief executive Brian Allen said an “unrealistic amount of money” would be needed.

He said St Joseph’s intended to sell part of its land in Drumcondra to raise money to fund its ongoing work, but the current property market meant this would prove difficult. In the interim, St Joseph’s could not afford to continue to run both Clonturk House and its own services for visually impaired children and adolescents.

Mr Allen said the Health Service Executive (HSE) “made it very clear” during talks it would not provide the funds required to bring the home up to new Health Information Quality Authority standards to be published shortly.

“Therefore, it is with regret that our decision is to transfer all the residents to other residential facilities and to work with the HSE to provide this alternative, high-quality accommodation the residents need and deserve,” he said.

A spokeswoman for St Joseph’s said the men would be invited to inspect a range of other nursing homes over the coming weeks. If the men chose to move together as a unit, all efforts would be made to facilitate them. It is understood a nursing home in Santry is being considered as suitable to accommodate many of the men.

A Clonturk House staff member, who did not wish to be named, told The Irish Times the residents were left shocked and confused by the announcement. “We had the job of having to pick up the pieces. Some of these residents wouldn’t be very cognisant. They are very elderly and the news would have gone over their heads,” she said. Two have lived in the home for 47 years since leaving St Joseph’s as boys.

The staff member accepted the dilapidated state of Clonturk House could potentially pose a risk to the residents: “They are safe insofar as they’re well-looked-after, but structurally we could make it that extra bit safer.”

She said some staff had offered to carry out church-gate collections to raise money but this idea was dismissed by management.

Chief executive of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland Des Kenny said having to move from their “natural hinterland” of Drumcondra could prove difficult for the men.

He said Clonturk House was “not safe” and St Joseph’s had no option but to close it when the HSE declined to provide necessary funds.

Clonturk House and St Mary’s Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired on Merrion Road, Dublin are the only two residential settings in Ireland specifically catering for people with sight loss.