Carthy welcomes significant breakthrough on controversial Mortgage Protection Scheme

Carrickmacross Sinn Féin Councillor Matt Carthy has welcomed, as a significant breakthrough for residents, the agreement of Monaghan County Council that some home purchasers under the ‘affordable house scheme’ will now be able to revert to cheaper mortgage protection insurance.

In a long running sage Cllr. Carthy and residents of Bothar Eanna have been in a battle with Monaghan County Council after the local authority had initially permitted mortgage holders to obtain independent protection insurance but then insisted that they return to the more expensive scheme operated by the council. This week Cllr. Carthy said he had been disappointed with the attitude of the council throughout the debacle and that the next step in the campaign would be to ensure that all other mortgage holders would be permitted to seek alternative cover.

Cllr. Carthy told this week how he had been working on this issue for over a year since it was first brought to his attention by residents of Bothar Eanna on the Convent Lands. Since then, he said, “we have met with brick wall after brick wall in trying to get answers”.

The residents had written to the ombudsman as well as seeking meetings with officials in Monaghan County Council. “At every turn they were met with what can only be described as intransigence” Cllr. Carthy said.

Cllr. Carthy continued: “Since I have become involved I have moved motions at meetings of Monaghan County Council and Carrickmacross Town Council which were passed unanimously, I submitted official questions to meetings of the County Council, I spoke directly to Monaghan County Council officials and I wrote to the council’s Director of services on numerous occasions, all without receiving a satisfactory response.

“The turning point came when I spoke to Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and he in turn submitted Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Housing on the issue. It was part of one of the responses to these which made it clear that the council could and should allow those who had previously been permitted to opt-out of the council’s scheme to revert to their less expensive cover.

“Even armed with this PQ response I still had to threaten the council with legal proceedings before we received this breakthrough in the past week. While relieved that we have achieved this I am very disappointed in the strategy of Monaghan County Council which appeared to be a hostile one at all times”.

Cllr. Carthy commended the residents involved in continuing to pursue this matter and he thanked his colleague Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD for his assistance. The next step of the campaign he said, would be to highlight the failures of this entire scheme which made people on low incomes pay more than others for mortgage protection insurance.

McKenna secures HSE concession on repatriation of patients to Monaghan General Hospital

North Monaghan Sinn Féin Councillor and Regional Health Forum member, Brian McKenna, has received a commitment from the HSE that Monaghan General Hospital could and would receive patients from Drogheda and Dublin hospitals following procedures being carried out. Cllr. McKenna had previously highlighted the fact that only patients treated in Cavan could be transferred to Monaghan. He had pointed out the waste of step down and rehabilitation beds available in Monaghan under the previous scheme was informed at a meeting of the Regional Health Forum by Hospital Network Manager Mr. Stephen Mulvany that so long as a reasonable number of beds were available for Cavan patients returning then other patients from Drogheda or Dublin hospitals could and should be accommodated in Monaghan.

Cllr. McKenna in response to Mr. Mulvany’s statement at the meeting requested that this be communicated to the relevant people in the other hospitals. Cllr. McKenna in a statement afterwards said: “this is an issue I have raised in recent months and I know of a number of instances where the HSE have refused to repatriate patients from Drogheda back to Monaghan General Hospital to recover from operations. I very much want to welcome Mr. Mulvany’s acknowledgment of the folly of such a policy and furthermore his commitment to issue the appropriate instruction to the relevant hospitals and staff members. I would encourage people who are unable to cope at home with family members recovering from operations to insist that they are returned to Monaghan where they will receive the appropriate care from qualified staff and make visiting much easier for their relatives. There is no valid reason why beds should be empty in Monaghan and patients lying on trolleys in Cavan, Drogheda or Dublin hospitals” Cllr. McKenna concluded.