Waterford City and County Council has initiated legal action in the High Court against Aperee Living Ballygunner Ltd, a branch of a beleaguered care home company, latest records show. This is due to more than €162,000 in council rates left unpaid by the firm in question, which used this subsidiary to govern a care home on the edge of Waterford city.
A judgement amounting to €52,000 has already been secured in being owed to the council by this offshoot, pertaining to unsettled commercial rates. However, it remains uncertain whether this ruling is part of the current legal proceedings or is considered separate.
Aperee Living Ballygunner Ltd found itself in a broader group of related companies, Aperee Living Group. Sundry noteworthy fiscal and oversight issues plagued the group throughout 2023 as discovered by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), the national agency observing the safety and quality of social and healthcare systems in Ireland.
Several reports issued following a series of inspections by Hiqa revealed that daily operational costs of Aperee properties were being met using funds from the residents. In the context of Aperee Living Ballygunner, for instance, a Hiqa report from March 2023 exposed major problems related to protecting the finances of the residents and the adherence to fire safety regulations while also acknowledging that the residents had provided positive feedback of the centre and staff.
Hiqa condemned the misuse of residents’ money to cover ongoing costs and concluded that this was neither appropriate nor correct despite these funds being reimbursed later. Hence, Hiqa concluded that hiqa ordered closed down the Ballygunner care home, one of ten operated by the group in Ireland, in September 2023. The care home no longer houses any residents.
In November narrative took another turn when a group of investors from Ireland, led by previous chief executive of the care home company, Paul Kingston, acquired the broader Aperee Group, a deal that also involved the Ballygunner enterprise. Following this, AIB, the group’s creditor, nominated Andrew Byrne of Deloitte as a receiver over the Ballygunner company.
Mr Byrne is currently occupying the role of receiver, a position that involves seeking a purchaser for the nursing home. The future proprietor will be obliged to restore the nursing home’s registration with Hiqa. The latest report on receivers for the firm indicates that from October 2023 to April 2024, it generated income slightly above €246,000. Contribution towards this amount included €32,548 from ground apartments’ rent, with an additional €213,508 coming from the HSE Fair Deal scheme, a government initiative that contributes partially to the expenses of private nursing home care.
The firm’s expenditures in this period amount to slightly more than €204,000. This total includes property management expenses amounting to €55,379, utility costs of €27,803, and insurance expenses that totalled €90,883.