The Junior Health Minister has admitted that there are failings in the services being provided at the St John of God's care home in Drumcar, Co Louth.
It's after a report by HIQA criticised the serious staff shortage at the facility, which in several cases resulted in residents being locked into a unit, unsupervised, while staff dealt with others elsewhere.
A HIQA report said this happened "on a number of occasions".
The health watchdog inspected conditions at St John of God in Drumcar, at two unannounced visits earlier this year.
An inspection in February found that institutional care practices resulted in limited control and choice for residents, and that one instance saw the centre unable to keep to "meaningful schedules" due to staff shortages.
On another morning, staff were assisting residents to prepare to go to mass.
However, there were insufficient staff to push a resident in a wheelchair - and so the resident watched the other residents leave while he was left behind, still wearing his outdoor coat.
The report also found that in April there was "ineffective leadership, governance and management arrangements".
It said this led to "repeated and continual failings" which placed residents at unacceptable risk.
It also found that it was not clear who had responsibility for the day-to-day management of the campus.
Kathleen Lynch says there is no dispute on the findings of the report, and says a mechanism has been put in place to deal with the immediate challenges facing the facility.
"The only way we will achieve improvements in our services is to work collaboratively, while always keeping the residents as the focus,” Minister Lynch said in a statement.
Paddy Connolly is the CEO of Inclusion Ireland. He says the shortage of staff is a result of chronic cutbacks:
