LAST UPDATE | 16 Feb

SERVICES PROVIDED BY St John of God Community Services (SJOG) will be transferred to the HSE due to funding issues.

The SJOG board met last week to discuss the future of the services as the organisation faces a €32.5 million deficit.

Staff at SJOG were informed that, unless extra funding is received by the HSE to cover the deficit, the process of transferring services will begin.

In a statement today, SJOG said it will “transfer all service provision to the HSE later this year”.

It’s intended that this transition will be completed by 15 August.

A spokesperson said management have been speaking with staff members and families of service users at its various locations around the country today informing them of the decision.

SJOG is one of the biggest providers of intellectual disability and mental health services in the country, working with around 8,000 children, adolescents and adults.

It employs some 3,000 people in 300 locations across Dublin, Kildare, Kerry, Wicklow, Meath, Monaghan and Louth.

Chief Executive of Saint John of God Community Services, Clare Dempsey, said today is the “saddest day in the history of the Service”.

She said the SJOG will use the time between now and 15 August to manage the handover process.

“I know it is deeply disappointing for those we support, our staff and the many thousands of families around the country with whom we hold such strong ties and bonds with over so many years,” said Dempsey.

She added that the SJOG will do “all in our power to conduct a smooth transfer of service to HSE and will seek to minimise the impact on people availing of our services, as well as our 3,000 valued members of staff”.

Dempsey told RTÉ’s News at One that the SJOG Board has informed her to commence discussions with the HSE “as a matter of urgency” to work with nominated people from the HSE to “prepare and implement a plan” that will see the transfer of services to the HSE. 

“I commit to working with that group of people, together with members of a team of St John of Gods services to do all that we can to bring about a seamless transfer of services that will have minimal disruption for the people we support, their families and staff,” she said. 

A spokesperson for the SJOG said “every effort has been made to avoid this difficult decision” and that efforts will be made to ensure an orderly transfer of services, “with a commitment to minimise disruption on those availing of the services”.

The spokesperson added that the annual funding allocation from the HSE “has been insufficient for over a decade”.

Since 2020, the SJOG and the HSE have engaged jointly in a “Sustainability Impact Assessment” process.

The SJOG spokesperson said the aim of this was to “establish the level of funding required to provide services to the required standard”.

“Unfortunately, the HSE has not committed to the core additional funding required to sustain service provision nor addressed the accumulated deficit,” said the spokesperson.

HSE response

In a statement today, the HSE said it is “shocked and disappointed” at the SJOG announcement.

“We have worked with them over the last number of years on funding-related matters. SJOGCS’s services have had an in-year break even each year for several years, with the help of substantial HSE support, and there is no reason to believe that 2024 will be any different,” the HSE said. 

HSE CEO Bernard Gloster said that “if despite substantial assistance in a €200 million grant to SJOG annually, they remain insistent on withdrawing from service provision then we will require them to do so in an orderly and appropriate fashion having regard to the rights of service users and their staff”.

He said he does “not accept it is appropriate or responsible for a declaration of handover by August this year”.

“The HSE will consider carefully its options if this eventuality arises. For now, we urge SJOG to remove the anxiety for families and continue their engagement safe in the knowledge they have more than enough money and assurance to avoid such an immediate action,” Gloster said. 

The HSE said it is open to further meetings with SJOG to “discuss the resolution of its financial position”, but added that it wants to “emphasise again” that SJOG “has sufficient funding”. 

St John of God Hospital and Saint Joseph’s Shankill will be unaffected by today’s announcement. 

-With additional reporting from Órla Ryan and Hayley Halpin