The Disabilities Minister says he cannot intervene in the HIQA decision to cancel Camphills registration in Ballytobin.
Minister Finian McGrath has responded to a Dail question from Deputy Bobby Aylward calling for an alternative service provider at the facility.
The Minister was not in the Dail yesterday when Deputy Aylward and Waterford TD Mary Butler raised their concerns over the future of the Camphill community in Ballytobin following a decision by HIQA to cancel the registration at the facility.
However he did issue a written response to the Deputies saying he has been informed by the HSE that HIQA has had concerns for the care and welfare of the 19 residents at the centre relating to one specific significant issue and a series of ongoing poor compliance issues.
Its emerged now that HIQA had agreed to delay a final decision on registration by up to 2 weeks at the request of the providers Chairperson who undertook to put an action plan in place to ensure significant outstanding issues were addressed.
However HIQA subsequently reviewed progress on this and concluded that NO significant progress had been made.
It was then that they issued a notice of the decision to cancel registration that will take effect from 2pm on Tuesday 6th of June after which the HSE will take over the running of the facility.