Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The HIQA inspections of long-term residential care have been extended to 2021. Some disability service providers have been told by the HSE that they cannot incur costs they would be obligated to incur in order to comply with HIQA. They are running a service that is deficient in terms of HIQA standards, yet the HSE is telling them to ignore the HIQA recommendations if they would incur additional costs. This puts them in a very invidious position. In some cases, staffing may be an issue. We are led to believe that staffing eventually follows through, although not always. Services that are not compliant with HIQA standards could be forced by the HSE to continue to provide the service and advised to ignore the HIQA recommendations. It is unfair for any State agency to put a service provider in a position in which it is required to have additional staffing complements that are not being provided on time. HIQA is doing on-the-spot inspections and finding services in breach of the guidelines, while the HSE is telling the service providers to ignore them. It must be examined.

If the regulator, HIQA, says something, one of two things should happen. Either the service is provided or the services goes. If it were anything else, this is what would happen. In this case, we would require that the funding be made available to allow compliance. For the HSE to tell some of these organisations and service providers to ignore HIQA recommendations is a very serious breach of basic public confidence and trust in service provision.