Hopes high for Camphill in Kilkenny

There are high hopes for future of the Camphill Community at Ballytobin in Callan despite HIQA’s decision earlier this year to cancel its registration over health and safety concerns.

Minister with responsibility for Disability Issues, Finian McGrath, met with some of the co-workers, residents and their parents for 45 minutes at the Kilkenny facility earlier this week.

It is understood there was “no appetite” to discuss HIQA’s decision and the meeting was more to do with forward thinking to see how the services could be continued on with a new service provider.

In a post on the Standing with Ballytobin Facebook page, the group said: “Our objective was that [the Minister] would go away with a clearer picture of the complexities of the Ballytobin situation and buy into the proposals to create a new Inclusive Neighbourhood that would work alongside any new care provider.

“The Minister agreed that we all needed to engage together if we were to get anywhere but that the current situation was unsustainable.

“The HSE reiterated this last point but added that they were ‘open to blue sky thinking’.

“The meeting adjourned with the Minister stating that he would return to Ballytobin and meet every resident.”

The 17 people with intellectual disabilities at the facility will be at the centre of any decision on the future of Camphill, the Minister is understood to have said as he described it as a “complex situation”.