Eimear is right at home in her new role at St. Aidan’s
TAKING OVER FROM MAURA KELLY AFTER HER RECENT RETIREMENT, EIMEAR MANNION LOOKS FORWARD TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE AT ST AIDAN’S
THE New Chief Executive Officer of Saint Aidan’s Services is Gorey’s Eimear Mannion, and she has had a busy month getting to grips with the many different services of the organisation since starting in her post.
Eimear takes up the position having just left a management role Sunbeam House Services in Bray, county Wicklow after two years there.
During her career to date, she has held management roles in environments from pharmaceutical, manufacturing and investment banking sectors, as well as spending some years as a consultant and business advisor.
She has served on the South East Regional Committee of IBEC and has been a member of the governing body of Waterford Institute of Technology.
She says that although that experience was very valuable, she finds working for the purpose of improving the lives of those with intellectual disabilities and their families is something much more rewarding.
‘When I was a little girl, I remember my mother giving lifts to service users at St Aidan’s, and the organisation is something I’ve always been aware of and supportive of. I feel it has a really important role to play in the community.
‘I spent a long number of years working in multi-national corporate organisations, and it came to a point where I wanted to work in organisation that was really making an impact on peoples’ lives rather than just increasing shareholders’ wealth.
‘So far I have found this kind of work very fulfilling and satisfying, and I want to make a great contribution’.
Eimear said her experience of working with key stakeholders, from HIQA, the HSE as well as operating under a board of directors is vital and directly relevant to best serve the needs of service users and their families.
‘St Aidan’s has had funding challenges, and the HSE funding for 2020 is still being finalised which we expect to be revealed in the coming weeks.
‘The disability sector has mobilised in the last couple of weeks and this became an election issue, highlighting the general underfunding right across the board, and we would be supportive of that national campaign.
‘At the moment we have to wait until the 2020 funding is finalised, to see whether our funding will be changed and what fundraising efforts will be required for the organisation going forward. We are lucky to have great support from the local community in terms of fundraising and other supports.
‘We will have to review entire service provision to identify any changes that may be required if funding reduces, but we will be prioritising the provision of services to all our clients as that’s the last thing we would want to reduce. As an organisation, we will be doing everything we can to be maintain things as they are for users of all of our services’.
Over the past weeks Eimear has visited many of these services to meet all the clients and staff.
She said the work being done in all the units and the supports being given to people is outstanding, that the compassion and care with which staff go about their work is something she finds truly heartening.
She believes that everyone deserves a fulfilling and rewarding life as a valued member of their own community, and that this will be guiding theme as she settles into her role.
Eimear said that due to the size of Bray’s Sunbeam House Services with 550 staff, St Aidan’s is a bit different in that regard.
‘There are so many complex areas to balance in this new role, such as funding challenges, increasing HIQA regulation, new Day Service compliance and regulatory requirements.
‘But there is extraordinary support and goodwill with regard to the challenges we face in the community. We deeply appreciate the fundraising contribution from local people, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you to every single individual who was involved in the Oscarz fundraising campaign’.