Presentation Sisters religious order to close Co Kildare nursing home

The Presentation Sisters religious order is closing the Shalom Nursing Home in Kilcock, Co Kildare because it says the home was no longer sustainable with a small number of residents.

The care facility was established in 1994 and registered as a nursing home for up to 33 residents in single rooms but there are just 13 nuns living in the Co Kildare home currently.

The religious order said in a statement that the leadership team of the Presentation Sisters in the northeast province had taken the “difficult decision” to deregister and close the home.

“The home is at 30 per cent occupancy, which was not sustainable, and led to this totally unavoidable decision,” the order said.

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The closure process has begun and will be completed by August 31st. The process to relocate the 13 Sisters “to a private nursing home of their choosing” has already begun, the order said.

Some 36 staff are affected by the closure.

The order said that it regretted that the closure “will have implications for our dedicated staff, who have made a much valued and appreciated contribution to this service and we are dealing directly with them and their representatives on this important matter.”

The closure follows other nursing homes run by religious orders shutting their doors as congregations shrink with the decline in vocations and ageing religious communities.

A significant number of members of male and woman religious and missionary congregations in Ireland are now being cared for in nursing homes, with an average age in the mid-70s.

In 2018, the Holy Ghost or Spiritan congregation, the order behind Blackrock College and St Michael’s College in Dublin, closed the 27-bed Marian House in Kimmage on the south side of Dublin in 2018 because it was no longer financially sustainable with just 15 residents living there.

In 2020, the Sisters of Charity closed St Mary’s nursing home on Merrion Road and St Monica’s at Belvedere Place, both in Dublin, and Caritas, a convalescent home beside St Mary’s.

Those closures were also blamed on financial constraints with St Mary’s operating at 60 per cent capacity and unable to meet the necessary statutory and regulatory requirements.

Cost and regulatory pressures have forced the closure of other non-religious nursing homes.

Last year 18 small, private nursing homes - many of which were run by families - announced their closures with the loss of 545 beds with most blaming increase energy and staffing costs and the increased cost of meeting higher regulatory demands on their operations and properties.

A number of nursing homes run by religious orders were affected by Covid-19 outbreaks during the pandemic resulting in the deaths of older members of their congregations.

They included the Jesuits’ Cherryfield Lodge nursing home in Dublin and a retirement home for the Augustinians in Bray, Co Wicklow on behalf of the order.