Nursing group at centre of RTÉ undercover exposé makes €8m operating profit in 2024
Gordon Deegan
The nursing home group at the centre of an RTÉ Investigates undercover exposé into nursing home care standards here recorded operating profits last year of €8.08 million.
New consolidated accounts show that Emeis Ireland Ltd last year recorded the operating profits of €8.08 million as revenues increased by 14 per cent from €125.2 million to €143.3 million.
In June of this year, an undercover RTÉ Investigates exposé into the standard of care provided at Emeis Ireland’s Beneavin Manor at Glasnevin in Dublin and The Residence Portlaoise sparked a public and political outcry.
Undercover footage gathered by two undercover RTÉ healthcare assistants found a litany of repeated care failings including staff shortages and vulnerable residents left unsupervised.
In the wake of the RTÉ Investigates programme, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) carried out fresh inspections of the two nursing homes and found that management and staffing levels at both nursing homes had increased and senior management from Emeis “have been engaged on site in both locations to provide ongoing oversight and direction to both centres”.
The report stated that “external, independent consultants have been retained by Emeis to undertake a root cause analysis of what occurred in both centres, to inform further ongoing actions to be taken by the provider.”
Following the programme’s airing, Minister of State for Older People, Keiran O’Donnell asked Hiqa to compile a report on the 25 centres run by Emeis Ireland group.
In its report, Hiqa noted that the resident care depicted in the RTÉ programme “was wholly unacceptable and an offence to the human rights and dignity of those residents”.
The new accounts don’t make any direct reference to the fall out from the RTÉ Investigates programme.
However, on risks faced by the business, the directors state generally that “the Group may suffer from reputational damage if appropriate standards of care are not achieved”.
Emeis Ireland is the country’s largest nursing home care provider and at the end of December last, the group operated 25 nursing homes across Ireland, had a further two greenfield development sites for nursing homes and provides +40,000 hours home care per month in Ireland.
Numbers employed at the group last year increased by 216 from 2,347 to 2,563 as staff costs increased from €55.3 million to €87.4 million.
The consolidated accounts provide the post tax profit for its various subsidiaries for 2024 and they show that the operator of Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin, Firstcare Beneavin Manor Limited recorded post tax profits of €2.93 million in 2024.
On the group business review for the year, the directors state that they “are satisfied with the performance of the Group and company during the financial period”.
They state that “the fundamental caring ethos approach to our resident/client needs are core to the continuing growth in demand for the Group’s services which have derived the satisfactory business performance throughout the period”.
Under the heading of staff and resident wellbeing, the directors state that their primary concern "is with the health and safety of the Group's residents and our employees".
The directors state that they closely monitor and assess the ongoing risks to the health and safety of all residents and employees and develop responses accordingly.
The group recorded a pre-tax loss of €21.1 million in 2024 which was down sharply on the pre-tax loss of €71.3 million in 2023.
The pre-tax loss arose from €29.2 million in interest payments that included €28.8 million in interest payments to group undertakings and the interest payments arose from the group’s expansion strategy.
The group had a post tax loss of €20.83 million after recording a corporation tax gain of €748,192.
The €8.08 million operating profit last year takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation charges of €24.89 million offset by a non-cash gain of €23.23 million arising from a reversal of impairment of tangible fixed assets.
Five directors served during the year and they shared €958,417 in remuneration made up of €893,009 and €65,408 in pension contributions.
The Irish unit- which is owned by a French based parent firm Emeis - continued to expand in 2024 spending €46.9 million on the purchase of tangible assets and this followed a spend of €37.7 million under that heading in 2023.
At the end of December last, the group had a shareholders’ deficit of €245.97 million while cash funds totalled €10.7 million. The book value of the group’s tangible assets last year increased to €263 million.
