Two fully trained healthcare assistants went undercover in homes run by one of Ireland's leading private nursing home providers Emeis, formerly known as Orpea.
They observed staff shortages, unsafe practices and in some cases, vulnerable older people left without basic care.
Tonight, RTÉ Investigates reveals what it witnessed in two private nursing homes.
Over the course of an undercover investigation at Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin, Co Dublin, a male resident asked to use the toilet during the night.
He was told there weren’t enough staff to bring him.
Instead, he was advised to use his incontinence pad — and reminded not to wet the bed, as no clean sheets were available.
On other occasions, the same man was found lying on a bare mattress.
When his bedding needed changing and no sheets were available, carers improvised — sticking together several incontinence pads to create a makeshift cover.
This was one of multiple incidents observed by RTÉ Investigates inside two nursing homes run by Emeis, one of the State’s largest private providers of residential care.
This particular investigation began with a short email.
"Nursing homes – Orpea Group".
That was the subject line on the email that set this investigation in motion. The programme airs tonight at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.
Each week, RTÉ Investigates receives dozens of emails from the general public – with a small but dedicated team — we often find ourselves in the difficult position of having more ideas than we do bodies on the ground.
But this email piqued a particular interest. For some time, we had been chipping away at the notion of looking at nursing home care. Then we heard from Clare Doyle.
Clare’s email wasn’t particularly long, but it contained key elements. She was a qualified nurse, she’d been training healthcare assistants, and she was, in her words, "shocked" and "concerned" by what several of them had been telling her.
Common to their concerns was one company – the private nursing home provider, Orpea.
She and her students had reported their concerns to the sector’s regulatory body, the Health Information & Quality Authority, HIQA via protected disclosures. Clare had also engaged with a number of State departments.
"From my point of view, within the system, I cannot blow the whistle any louder. No one is listening," Clare’s email read.
A week later, we met Clare at RTÉ's offices. She arrived prepared – files under her arm containing a meticulous paper trail of all her efforts.
"I was concerned because of what appeared to me to be systemic practices that were being adopted by Orpea that was creating an environment that was detrimental to the quality of care," Clare told us.
"Practices like rapid admissions of residents, healthcare assistants were being moved from on the floor to providing kitchen duties, staff numbers not increasing either in relation to more residents coming in. I was very shocked because these healthcare assistants were experienced," Clare Doyle said.
"These are our parents, our aunts, our uncles. As a professional, I was shocked, I was angry. As a human being I was heartbroken."
Troubled past
Orpea entered the Irish market in 2020.
Just two years later, its parent company found itself embroiled in a major scandal back home in France when the publication of a book by the journalist Victor Castanet laid bare widespread allegations of mismanagement and neglect within its nursing homes there.
Several legal actions relating those revelations remain under way.
Despite this, Orpea expanded its presence in Ireland and is now one of the country’s largest providers of private nursing home care.
Last year the company rebranded to Emeis.
READ: Serious care concerns found at leading private nursing home group
The meeting with Clare Doyle started a lengthy and thorough process.
RTÉ Investigates conducted months of independent research, trawled through inspection reports, complaints and reviews and had dozens of meetings.
Ultimately, it was decided that the only way to further establish the nature and extent of the issues was through undercover filming.
The Residence Portlaoise
The Emeis website lists 27 homes right across the country providing a total of over 2,400 beds. RTÉ recently had two undercover researchers simultaneously apply for and secure healthcare assistant roles at separate Emeis nursing homes.
They both had all the required qualifications and were garda vetted by RTÉ.
One of the homes the RTÉ researchers applied to was The Residence Portlaoise – a modern, purpose-built facility just outside Portlaoise town.
It opened in November 2023 and can accommodate up to 101 residents, ranging from respite stays and convalescent care to adult services for those under 65 and full-time residents under the Fair Deal scheme.
With Fair Deal funding it costs in the region of €1,200 per week to stay there.
The Fair Deal scheme is a State support system that helps cover the cost of nursing home care in Ireland, based on a person's income and assets.
The last publicly available inspection report for The Residence Portlaoise dates from February this year and makes for stark reading.
Although the HIQA inspectors noted that some of the residents they spoke with said staff were "lovely and did their best", there "was not enough of them to help everyone" and they attributed this to the centre being "short staffed".
Many of the issues identified by HIQA were repeated over multiple inspections – yet resident numbers at the home had grown from 55 at the previous inspection to 70 people.
One of the issues identified by HIQA was that even though there were 12 communal rooms in the nursing home, residents had to spend their day in just one room where staff could supervise them. This led to the room being crowded.
Despite HIQA raising this concern in February, when RTÉ's healthcare assistant subsequently started working there, the same practice was still in everyday use.
While there were examples of good care too, RTÉ more often observed staff shortages having a direct impact on residents' day-to-day care.
To accommodate staffing shortages, most days large groups of residents were congregated in the same lounge – often with just one carer supervising in excess of 20 people of varying needs and mobility.
RTÉ Investigates showed its footage to several experts in gerontological and nursing care – including Consultant Geriatrician, Prof David Robinson.
"Take the word older out if it and put 22 of anybody into a room for the day, see how you feel. That’s deprivation of liberty," Prof Robinson said.
HIQA’s inspection in February also noted that residents at Portlaoise sometimes experienced extended waiting times for assistance – again because there wasn’t enough staff.
That finding though appears to have effected little change – RTÉ's undercover carer also seeing this same issue repeated during her time working there.
This meant staff were frequently stressed and overworked but ultimately it was vulnerable residents who most felt the impact.
One day RTÉ's healthcare assistant found herself in the lounge with a group of residents – several asked to use the bathroom but she was on her own.
Among them was an old man who was unable to walk and whose care plan required the assistance of two carers when helping him with personal care.
Sitting in a wheelchair, he repeatedly begged for assistance as his discomfort grew. Unable to leave the other residents unsupervised, some of whom were at high risk of falls, RTÉ's carer continuously rang the bell for assistance, but no one was free to come.
In all, it took 25 minutes before the man was wheeled to his bathroom.
"Clearly if people are suffering because they want to go to the toilet and they’re faced with the choice of being incontinent in the chair due to staffing levels, that is very, very poor care of people," said Consultant Geriatrician Prof Rónán Collins who was also shown footage.
Manual handling of residents
Alongside concerns about residents left waiting for basic assistance, RTÉ's undercover carer also witnessed serious lapses in how vulnerable people were physically handled.
The Emeis policy on Correct Manual Handling Techniques states its nursing homes should operate a minimal manual handling approach to reduce or minimise the risk of injuries to staff and residents.
Manual handling training was conducted during RTÉ's healthcare assistant’s time working at The Residence Portlaoise, yet she frequently saw staff breach the most basic of manual handling skills.
On one occasion, a frail female resident was taken to her room to begin her nighttime routine. Her care plan stated that she required the help of two carers with a full body hoist, but the woman was put to bed by just one male carer without the help of any handling equipment.
"We have to remember this is a person’s home," Prof Collins said.
"And the handling before she went to bed and after it and the repositioning her is not appropriate."
The resident, who has dementia, had a sensor mat on her bed because she was categorised as a high fall risk. Clearly confused the woman grew increasingly agitated and called out for help.
But when none arrived, she repeatedly tried to get out of bed. Her sensor mat activated a bell, but it was left to ring for several minutes without response.
"If the alarm goes off, we have to respond in a quick fashion – if you don’t, it is just window dressing," Prof Collins added.
Responding to the finding of RTÉ’s investigation, Emeis Ireland said the evidence of poor care delivery, improper moving and handling of residents, and a lack of dignity and breaches of residents’ rights are deeply distressing, adding that it does not tolerate any individual or systemic neglect or practices.
Emeis said it is fully committed to doing everything in its power to ensure that these failings do not recur, and it has now launched an in-depth review to immediately address all identified issues.
Beneavin Manor
On Dublin’s northside, RTÉ Investigates had a second healthcare assistant take up work at the Beneavin Manor nursing home in Glasnevin.
It can provide care for up 115 adults. The facility was acquired by Emeis in 2021 and it costs approximately €1,400 per week for residents to stay there under the Fair Deal scheme.
The most recent HIQA inspection report for the nursing home dates from November 2024. It references residents being very happy, with inspectors finding the centre was well managed and the quality and safety of services provided were of a good standard.
But on the ground, RTÉ's carer witnessed issues of concern.
Management at the nursing home promised a three-day induction period but by the carer’s third day she was placed on a new floor which accommodates residents with advanced dementia and acute medical needs.
Having never met these residents before she was instructed to provide one-to-one care.
RTÉ's healthcare assistant also didn’t have access to any care plans and therefore was without vital information on the care needs of residents. She repeatedly asked for access, but it took three weeks before she was eventually able to see them.
At Beneavin Manor, RTÉ's carer also saw staff facing constant challenges when it came to the supply of essential resources.
On several occassions, she witnessed the home run out of the most basic of items like towels, sanitary wipes and gloves.
"How can staff work under those sorts of conditions?" asked Prof Amanda Phelan of the School of Nursing in Dublin City University (DCU).
"Wipes for engaging in activities with the residents are required so the mind boggles about what happened in their absence. To deliver good care and adequate care you need to have the tools of your trade."
Multinational care giant
Founded in France in 1989, Emeis now has over 1,000 facilities, including nursing homes, across 20 countries in Europe and around the world.
Last year the company amassed a revenue of over €5.6 billion globally.
Yet back at Dublin’s Beneavin Manor, the issue of inadequate resources persisted throughout RTÉ’s investigation.
As previously described, one male resident went without proper bedding due to a shortage of clean sheets — leaving carers to stick together incontinence pads to create a makeshift bedsheet.
"People don’t understand the impact it has for a person to be incontinent," Prof Rónán Collins explained. "It reduces a person’s confidence, their wellbeing, their psychological sense of themselves and a spiralling into a loss of function.
"I can’t say any more about how much this goes against the grain of every gerontological principle I would hold dear."
Emeis Ireland told RTÉ as part of its review it would now thoroughly examine the management and oversight of all medical supplies, housekeeping products and continence supplies across its nursing homes to ensure alignment with best practice and its own policies.
Having witnessed repeated poor practices, RTÉ Investigates had both researchers hand in their notice and raise concerns with local management at the nursing homes. They also reported all their concerns to HIQA.
HIQA told RTÉ both The Residence Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor have set out compliance plans to address issues at their homes with further inspection reports of both centres currently being finalised.
In a statement, Emeis Ireland said it has no connection or involvement with any of the allegations made in France but it acknowledges and sincerely apologises to residents and their families for the distress caused by the failings identified, saying this is not the standard of care they expect and not what residents or their families deserve.
RTÉ Investigates: Inside Ireland’s Nursing Homes is broadcast tonight, 4 June at 9:35 on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Documentary produced/directed by Lucy Kennedy.
