Thousands of elderly Irish people living lives of isolation and loneliness in English cities could be helped to return home if plans by a Cork businessman come to fruition.
Mr Larry O'Driscoll, who has been based in England for nearly 30 years, has already spent £100,000 refurbishing an old priest's house in Co Leitrim, Falcon Lodge. It accommodates 11 people and a number of Irish emigrants will be returning there over the coming months.
Mr O'Driscoll has also now started renovating another house nearby in Edenvale, which could house 13.
"I had a call from a 65-year-old Co Galway woman the other day who is a virtual prisoner in a tower block in London. She is on her own, and would love to come back to live out her days in Ireland," he said.
Mr O'Driscoll, who runs two nursing homes in Birmingham, said he believed there were people in similar circumstances all over England and that the Government should now help them.
"These are people who have spent their lives working in England, on the building sites maybe, and are now down in their luck, and are at the bottom of the pile. There are thousands like that, and they are forgotten about.
"Most of them are men in their 50s and 60s. A lot of them are suffering from depression, some of it brought on by alcohol, but now that we are doing so well in Ireland, we shouldn't forget about them."
Mr O'Driscoll also has a construction company, Raven Homes Ireland Ltd, operating in Leitrim and Donegal. He originally bought Falcon Lodge in Kinlough to convert it into a B & B. He stressed that he did not want to make any profit from the scheme or recoup the cost of refurbishment, but said the Government would have to pay the running costs through social welfare payments. His accountants are now drawing up a business plan to present to the government. He is also in contact with the Irish Associations in Birmingham and London and with the Mayo Association - which started a similar home some years ago - to organise a campaign to promote a repatriation scheme.
"This would be totally non-profit-making, all we want is to cover our costs of keeping the people. In the long term, our plan would be to have 60 or so of these houses, one in every big town," he said.
Falcon Lodge applicants are now being vetted in conjunction with the Irish Centre in Birmingham. In recent weeks, three men have already stayed at Falcon Lodge, using it as a short-term base after returning from England before moving on to permanent accommodation. Another man is due to arrive sometime in the next few weeks.