Resident at disability centre engaged in ‘significant property damage’, Hiqa finds

A number of “serious incidents” occurred at a Co Waterford disability centre, including a resident locking themselves in a room without staff supervision and engaging in “significant property damage”, the health and safety watchdog has found.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) on Friday published 27 inspection reports on disability centres in the State.

The inspectors highlighted a number of concerns with Ballygunner Village, a residential disability centre that can house up to three residents, located in Co Waterford.

According to the inspection, which was carried out in January, the provider in November 2025 was issued with “immediate and urgent actions to address the serious deficits present in risk management in the centre”.

“The current inspection identified that some actions had been taken to address risk, such as the introduction of risk assessments, control measures and incident reviews,” he said.

“However these systems had not been introduced in a systemic and robust manner and were still failing to adequately ensure residents were safe at all times.”

One resident “absconded” from the centre, while another refused to return to the centre, the report notes.

Hiqa said the centre was “not suitable to meet the needs of one resident”.

“The resident had communicated with staff and management on a number of occasions that they no longer wanted to live in the designated centre and had self-discharged from the service for 12 days in December 2024,” the report said.

“They had also refused to return to the centre on a number of occasions. The inspectors found that measures in place were not adequately meeting their needs to a meaningful degree.”

The inspectors said they were not assured by the safeguarding systems in place in the system, and called for particular improvement in relation to residents’ finances.

“One resident had spent €8,500 from their personal finances over a three-month period in 2025, following their admission to the designated centre,” the report said.

“The inspectors saw limited evidence of tangible assets or outcomes for this resident to show for their substantive spending. The resident’s previous residential placement had highlighted to the current provider on admission, that overspending was a known risk to this individual.”

However, Hiqa said sufficient supports and safeguards were not put in place to manage this risk, but they noted work had been done in weeks before the inspection to manage their spending.

A follow-up inspection was conducted in March, at which point there were only two residents in the home, and a decrease in “adverse events”.

Hiqa noted there were some improvements in areas such as medication management and risk management, but they were “still not assured” there was adequate oversight of the quality and safety of residents’ care.

In response to the inspections, the provider outlined the ways in which they intended to become compliant with regulations, including reviewing care plans, the audit framework and guidance being issued to staff around residents’ finances.