After a significant amount of recent nursing home closures, emergency meetings have started to take place.
Mary Butler, Junior Minister for Older People, has said she is aware some private operators are choosing to close their facilities to help accommodate Ukrainian refugees instead.
She has stated that the issue is not with the refugees, but is actually a result of the ethics involved in causing this “upheaval to older people and their families”.
Minister Butler is concerned and has described the situation as “very worrying”.
She told WLR: “Well I would be very, very concerned if that is a trend we are going to see happening. It’s something I discussed yesterday in detail with my officials, with the department, and I’ve also discussed it with the HSE and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.
“It comes under their remit that we can place people appropriately that have arrived into the country, this is not about Ukrainian people per se, my worry is about the morals and the ethics of it.”
