"Nursing homes are people's homes" — Alliance Calls For Action After Kilcoole Lodge Report

The Alliance Supporting Nursing Homes wants the Minister for Older People to act following HIQA findings at Kilcoole Lodge in Co. Wicklow.

A group representing smaller nursing homes is warning of "disastrous outcomes" for Ireland's ageing population unless problems in the sector are tackled.

The Alliance Supporting Nursing Homes has called for urgent Government action after HIQA findings at Kilcoole Lodge Nursing Home in Co. Wicklow, which is managed by Mowlam Healthcare.

HIQA inspectors identified serious deficiencies in residents' rights, safeguarding, healthcare, staffing and governance.

Residents reported lengthy delays in getting assistance, including one who reportedly waited five hours for water. Inspectors also found insects in a resident's room, along with failures in access to healthcare and management oversight.

Shane Curran of the Alliance told ECFM News the report was as alarming as the footage that shocked the public last year.

"Since about 2013-2014 we've seen a large rise in the more corporate, multinational nursing home groups coming into the nursing home sector. And whilst investment coming into the sector is welcome, it must align with quality care," he said.

"About a year ago, we were all put in front of RTÉ investigators on our screens and we saw some shocking footage of poor care relating to a corporate, multinational nursing home group. This particular report from Mowlam Healthcare Wicklow Nursing Home was equally as shocking. It's showing that the problem is still there."

Mr Curran pointed to specific findings in the report.

"Reading the reports and seeing things like a poor, vulnerable woman waiting five hours for water, and some people's rooms, silverfish, continuous staffing deficiencies, unacceptable. So reading that was as terrifying as what we saw on our screens."

"HIQA are very important"

Mr Curran said that while many people felt last year that the problem was a regulatory failure, HIQA deserves credit for uncovering the latest issues.

"A lot of people at the time, a year ago, felt that it was a regulatory failure in relation to what we saw on our screens and why it wasn't HIQA clocking it. I think we have to say that HIQA are very important. They come in to regulate the sector and they have uncovered this issue here."

"A year on from a significant event which rocked the whole nursing home sector, we are now in a position where the regulator is coming in out of hours, seeing these problems and actively engaging with the owner provider and tackling the issue."

"A two-tier approach"

The Alliance, which predominantly represents independent and small community-based homes, says the problem lies in who the regulator can see behind each provider.

"The regulator, HIQA, and the funding mechanism, the National Treatment Purchase Fund, they know who the owners are. They know who the beneficiary is. And if that's in place, then you can heavily regulate and inspect and make sure that everything is 100% for the vulnerable people receiving care."

"That is not the case currently with large corporate entities where their parent companies sit in potentially the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands. It's extremely hard to tackle and prosecute large corporate entities."

Mr Curran stressed he was not blaming the State or the regulator.

"It's not HIQA's fault, not the State's fault that we are in this situation. It is their duty to take a course of action to ensure that these entities are effectively regulated and held to account as much as anybody else."

He contrasted the position of a small rural home with that of a corporate-owned one.

"If you're a 40-bed nursing home in Connemara, rurally, the state and regulators can effectively check some balances on you right to the end, they know who the beneficiary is. That is not the case for a 40-bed maybe as part of a large corporate entity. And it should be a lot more equal, a lot more fair. And right now, there's a two-tier approach."

Call on the Minister

"So we need action. We're calling on the Minister for Older People to put stronger checks and balances in relation to large corporate groups."

"Because if we don't, we have an ageing population, we're going to need a lot more beds. Smaller, more independent nursing home operators will continue to struggle. The market will continue to be consolidated by these large entities."

"This is not a factory"

Mr Curran also criticised calls from another representative body in the sector for more foreign direct investment.

"There is a lot of calls from another representative body in the nursing home sector that is saying we need FDI. Now, foreign direct investment is great for the country in relation to pharmaceuticals and tech. These investment funds in long-term care, we need to realise this is not a factory. This is not an investment vehicle. Nursing homes are people's homes."

"Until we put strong checks and balances on large corporate entities, we are not going to improve the standard of care. And these reports will happen again and again and again."

Mowlam response

Mr Curran acknowledged that Mowlam Healthcare has said the issues have since been resolved, following a further HIQA inspection that has not yet been published.

"I will acknowledge that in fairness, Mowlam Healthcare have said that since the inspection, those matters have been resolved by another inspection that HIQA have done, which hasn't been printed yet. That's fine, but this still happens. It still happens and they will continue to surface and keep happening."

"Disastrous outcomes"

He said the stakes are rising as the population ages.

"We have an ageing population and there's a lot of people there now who might be listening in the early 70s, early 80s, who might need nursing home care. If we do not get this right now, the standard and quality for care for older persons when they need it... Obviously, all of us promote home care as the absolute most, as a first for people. But if you need nursing home care, if we do not tackle the problems that are in this sector right now, it's going to have disastrous outcomes for an ageing population."

The full HIQA report on Kilcoole Lodge, dated 8 June 2026, is available on hiqa.ie.