Come clean on Rathmoyle - Thompson

Cllr Thompson said; “Both myself and East Antrim Sinn Fein MLA Oliver McMullan met with the Northern Trust Interm Head Of Day Support Services on the 8th November 2013. The meeting was arranged to discuss concerns that had been raised with Sinn Fein about the future of Rathmoyle by families in The Glens who have relatives attending the day centre at Rathmoyle and also by families who have children finishing school and who are thinking about Rathmoyle as a possible day centre.

“At the meeting he gave us a commitment that The Northern Trust would host Sinn Fein elected representatives from The Glens and from Ballycastle on a visit to Rathmoyle to view the facilities and programs on offer.

“Since the meeting in November I have sent four e-mails, asking for a visit to Rathmoyle to be arranged. However as yet The Northern Trust has give no concrete date or time for the visit.

“This begs the questions, what are The Northern Trust trying to hide at Rathmoyle? Why are elected representatives being refused a visit which was promised from the meeting in 2013? And what does The Northern Trust think it is doing to the confidence that families have in the facilities in Rathmoyle if elected representative are being refused access to the centre?

“I am now calling on The Northern Trust to either host the visit to Rathmoyle which was promised or come clean on what is happening at the centre. Cllr McMullan MLA will be sending a question to The Health Minister, Edwin Poots asking why elected representatives are being refused access to view the facilities at Rathmoyle.”

In response a spokesperson for the Northern Trust said: “The Northern Trust met with Cllr McMullan MLA and Cllr Thompson in November 2013. Several members of staff from our Learning Disability and Physical Disability teams were present.

“We talked at length about services for these groups in the Glens area and agreed to organise a tour of services available within community based Day Opportunities. The Trust contacted Mr Thompson after the meeting. Mr Thompson declined the opportunity to visit our day opportunity facilities but advised in January he would prefer to visit the facility based at Rathmoyle.

“We are happy to arrange this visit to Rathmoyle which provides day care to people in the Glens area with a learning disability or physical disability who have complex care needs and/or challenging behaviours”.