Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Twenty-five people died at the CareChoice Nursing Home Ballynoe, White's Cross, Cork, in January and February. The death toll is one of the highest in the country since the pandemic started. This morning's edition of the Irish Examinertells us that five of the families are seeking a group inquest. These relatives are deeply unhappy with the way they and their loved ones were treated and have many questions that demand answers. These questions include: why was a relative told that a loved one had Covid when they did not; why was a relative told that a relative did not have Covid when they did; why was a relative told that a loved one was doing fine and had just been out for a short walk when the resident in question was wheelchair-bound and had not walked in years; why were residents moved from rooms they had lived in for years; why was a promise of daily communication not honoured; is it acceptable that relatives be left uninformed for days on end in the middle of a Covid outbreak and that phones are left unattended for six or seven hours at a stretch; and is it credible that residents received world-class healthcare in a home where communications were worse than what one would expect in a banana republic? The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation told the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response last summer that the nursing home system had buckled for a variety of reasons. These reasons included competition between clinical governance and financial constraints; outsourcing of 80% of care delivery from the public sector and the emerging trend of corporate and international financial institutions taking ownership of large parts of the sector.

The nursing home at Ballynoe was taken over by the French investment fund InfraVia Capital Partners in 2017. InfraVia owns the Mater Private Hospital, all of the telecom masts on Coillte land and the stadium of Olympique de Marseille and it has interests in the expansion of the metro in Málaga etc. InfraVia does not specialise in nursing homes but in the maximisation or profit. Was profit maximisation a factor in the tragedy that unfolded at Ballynoe? Many relatives seem to think so. In particular, they point to the question of staffing levels, which they believe were not what they could or should have been. There must be answers for these relatives. HIQA, has carried out a recent inspection. Will the Taoiseach join with me in calling on HIQA to interview the relatives as part of this process? Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to instruct either HIQA or the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, to carry out a full investigation here which goes beyond a run-of-the-mill inspection?

Given the number of relatives and staff throughout the country who have questions and criticisms similar to those of the Ballynoe residents, will the Taoiseach support the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response's key recommendation that there be a public inquiry into nursing home deaths and the pandemic? This would be an inquiry that deals with the immediate issues raised by relatives and staff and with the broader question of whether our society can afford to continue with a nursing home system run in the interests of shareholders and the maximisation of profit.

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