Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Cooper's contributions are always thought provoking. My mother died after she contracted MRSA having spent just a week in a hospital but I did not think that hand hygiene could be the only thing that led to her demise. She went into the hospital on a Friday, we took her out of it the following Friday and she died at home two weeks later. She was eaten alive at home just two weeks later. In much distress we wrote to the hospital but we never received an acknowledgement of our letter.

I grew up in an area that had five hospitals run by religious orders and I often think how clean those places were. One evening I witnessed a cleaner wiping the floor with a cloth who then decided to wipe a locker beside a patient. Hygiene is the personal responsibility of everybody who works in a hospital and I do not regard it as someone else's job to tell a person to wash his or her hands. People must take personal responsibility for doing so. When children are being reared at home we insist that they wash their hands on a daily basis, particularly after using the bathroom. I want everyone to reflect on the issue.

I have read the report and have a few questions on the regulations governing residential services for children and adults with disabilities. What proportion of the HIQA budget is set aside for the new function? How many new staff will it employ? It will take some time for the first round of inspections to take place. How will HIQA approach the first inspections? How will it prioritise service providers? Is there a system for doing so?

I commend HIQA on engaging with service providers and other groups in advance of the implementation of the new service. What were the main issues to arise from that engagement? Did service providers tell HIQA the ways to provide good services?

My next question is on residential care for older people. The document entitled the National Quality Standards of Residential Care Settings for Older People in Ireland was published in 2009. How often are quality standards published? Are they still fit for purpose given that the document is four years old? Does HIQA plan to update the document?