New St Hilda's residential home launched in Athlone

The launch event for the new St Hilda's residential home in Auburn, Athlone, took place on Wednesday, June 7, with Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte cutting the ribbon on the house.

This new residential home is a community home for people with intellectual disabilities. St Hilda's new building is a modern, bright, and fully accessible home that has the capacity for four residents. People will begin moving into their new home over the next two weeks. There will be nine members of staff working here, providing 24/7 care to the residents.

Each resident was involved in the design of their own room by choosing their preferred colour scheme. One resident, Aisling Dooley, chose pink, and said: “It's lovely here. It's all done up and it's lovely. Lovely colours.” Aisling's room will have an en-suite, a walk-in-wardrobe, a desk and a television.

Everyone involved with St Hilda's was delighted and very proud to finally open the new home. John Scanlon, Residential Services Manager, said: “This has been in the works for a few years now. All residential services take time. The house had been there before obviously, but has been renovated to suit the needs of the residents.”

CEO of St Hilda's, Sheila Buckley Byrne, acknowledged that this was an “emotional day for everyone”, especially for the families and friends involved. The opening up of this new residential home means that other families get access to respite, as capacity has been freed up.

This project has been entirely funded by the HSE, and Minister Rabbitte expressed how proud she is of the relationship between the HSE and St Hilda's: “This project was born out of last year's opening of the children's respite house in Athlone. Sheila made a proposition that she had her eye on a property for an adult residential service. Sheila said to me, 'If you can provide the funding, we can provide the staff.”

The Minister continued: “We've seen immediate deliveries on the works we've done with St Hilda's. It is three years in a row now that we have delivered on projects, which is due to the great relationship and partnership between St Hilda's and the HSE.”

Local TD Robert Troy thanked his colleague Minister Rabbitte: “Its great to see the Minister here, she has been so helpful for the community. Since she has been appointed Minister, there has been incredible increases in funding for disability sectors.”

In her concluding remarks, Minister Rabbitte said: “What we really want is to bring happiness to families like today. To bring peace of mind. Our job is to give people the opportunity to flourish in their community.”