Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are a few other little matters I would like to ask about which are directly tied in with staff and how HIQA decides where to go. I have the greatest of respect for HIQA. As I stated at the outset, it has an enormous task and I believe the range is too much for one body. Then there is the bigger issue of how we have set about privatising everything. There is a belief that the model being used is cheaper but the hidden costs of monitoring are extraordinary. For example, if one looks at nursing homes, the split is now 80% private and 20% public. In that context, and at the risk of being parochial, I will take the example of Galway. I have read the reports. If we look at the regional hospital, by any standards, with patients on trolleys, it deserves to be the subject of a HIQA inspection. The paediatric unit was singled out in one of HIQA's reports in terms of the cleaning routine, the absence of privacy and lots of issues around that. Will HIQA go back in and inspect that? How does HIQA pick that as opposed to examining the fact that there is a ward closed or a leaky roof in Merlin Park University Hospital? Does Mr. Quinn understand the point I am making? It seems an extraordinary position for HIQA to be in. It seems that HIQA is utterly reliant on whistleblowers but it says it is not.