Legal proceedings have been initiated by the Health Service Executive (HSE) against a Co Wicklow nursing home from which an elderly woman went missing over a year ago.
The proceedings have been initiated against the Tara nursing home in Bray from which Maura Reynolds (78) disappeared on the night of Christmas Day 2005. She was never found, and it is thought she may have fallen into the sea.
Following an inspection of the private nursing home late last year, the HSE temporarily suspended admissions to it. While that ban on admissions has since been lifted, the inspection report on the home at that time has still not been published on the HSE's website, where in recent months reports of inspections on most homes have been posted.
Instead a notice on the website states that the report on this home cannot be published at this stage.
The message states: "An inspection report has been prepared for this nursing home but it is not possible to publish it at this time because legal proceedings have been initiated by the Health Service Executive under the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 and the Nursing Homes (Care and Welfare) Regulations 1993".
The owner of the home, Paul Costello, who is a former chief executive of the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation, said when contacted yesterday that he was unaware of any legal proceedings being taken against the home. "I wasn't aware of this at all."
He added that he was surprised such a notice would be posted on the HSE website without him being informed.
The family of Mrs Reynolds made nine complaints about her care at the Tara nursing home to the HSE. All complaints were upheld in 2006 when the HSE inspected the home.
Details of the findings of this inspection were published by The Irish Times in November. The inspection found there was only one nurse and two care staff caring for 47 patients on the night Mrs Reynolds left the home. At the time Mr Costello said the home's staffing ratio was above the national average.
Mrs Reynolds, who had Alzheimer's disease and cancer, had been a resident at Tara nursing home for 18 months before her disappearance.
She is now presumed dead given her age and illness, and her family asked the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, to permit an inquest into the death to be brought forward so as to get some closure on what happened. Normally seven years must elapse before an inquest can be held if a body has not been found.
Mr McDowell has now authorised the coroner in Co Wicklow to hold an inquest. However, no date has yet been set.