Lack of staff stops €5m Limerick care centre reopening

A €5 million special care unit for disturbed teenagers in Limerick city has operated for only seven months since it was completed three years ago because of difficulties in recruiting staff.

The centre needs 33 staff to reopen. But a year-long recruitment drive by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland, Europe and Canada has resulted in only two out of 30 people offered contracts being available to work in the centre.

The centre at Coovagh House is one of three special care units developed as a result of High Court order by Mr Justice Peter Kelly in February 2000.

It was completed in 2002, but remained unoccupied for a year after the Mid Western Health Board failed to recruit sufficient staff. It finally opened in September 2003 after eight separate recruitment drives.

With annual running costs of €1.8 million, it cared for only three boys before it was shut down in April 2004 on foot of a High Court order secured by the health board in order to relocate the boys in the centre's care.

Freedom-of-information records show that three senior HSE officials, including the unit's manager, spent five days in Canada last November interviewing candidates to operate the centre.

A HSE project team was also established aimed at reopening the centre.

In a statement the HSE said that, arising from the recruitment drive, more than 30 people had been offered contracts, but only two were available for work to date.

Apart from the recruitment drive in Ireland, Europe and Canada, steered by a recruitment agency employed by the HSE, the executive has also conducted three separate national competitions to source staff.

Labour spokeswoman on health Liz McManus said yesterday she found it "disturbing and inconceivable" that one year on the centre was still closed.

Ms McManus queried how hard the HSE had tried to fill the posts. "If the HSE cannot employ trained staff, why does it not train staff up itself to work in the centre?

"It is not serving anyone's interest at all in having the centre remain closed," she said.

The Coovagh centre is located in the grounds of St Joseph's psychiatric hospital.

It comprises a residential centre, a school, an administration building and sports facilities including a medium-sized soccer pitch, an indoor basketball court and a gym.

The centre catered for troubled boys aged between 11 and 17 from the Southern and South-Eastern Health Board along with boys from the midwest.