Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise. I have not seen the figures. I am glad Ms Dunnion has given them to me.

There is a particular problem when nursing homes are inspected and major or minor non-compliance is found and I will use a particular nursing home as an example but I will not name it. This particular nursing home was inspected in March 2019 and the report was published in July 2019 but the follow up inspection was not until December 2019 and that report was published in March 2020. There was a year between the first inspection with negative outcomes and the report of the follow up inspection which, in this case, appeared to show compliance. Without going into the details, this nursing home was non-compliant with regard to health and social care, safeguarding and safety, residents' rights and dignity and suitable staffing. Its complaints procedure is compliant. Notwithstanding all of the powers HIQA has, the process of inspection and follow-up does not seem to be working as quickly as it ought to be. I appreciate that follow-up is part of the process but it is not fast enough or good enough.

There is no change in the figures we have. The majority of nursing homes are not compliant. In this crisis HIQA is statutorily accountable. I do not suggest it is passing the buck to anybody else, and I agree it includes other agencies, but ultimately the buck stop with it. As an inspectorate, does HIQA require more staff? The witnesses can correct me if I am wrong but the figure in its most recent report was that 76% of nursing homes were inspected last year as opposed to 100%. If HIQA does not have enough staff to investigate, look at, help and support private and public nursing homes it cannot do its job. Does HIQA need more powers? It seems that non-compliance can drag on and on. I do not agree there is a difference between major and minor infractions. By definition, a nursing home should be 100% compliant. Does HIQA need more powers to ensure this happens? A huge part of this is not just finding what are the issues but training and making available to public and private nursing homes the professional capacity to upskill all of their staff. It is good enough finding fault in one sense but if people do not upskill an inspector cannot be there 24-7.

We have had a serious problem with a private nursing home in Dundalk where there has been an awful lot of sadness and upset at the terrible outcome for so many people in a very short space of time.

It seems there was a situation whereby out of a total of 24 professional staff, particularly nurses, only six were available to maintain that nursing home because of illness and absence for other reasons. Given that we are in this sort of crisis, not just nationally but internationally, does HIQA, in the context of its investigations, have the power to seek information from the nursing home, from the HSE and from others in order to get to the bottom of what happened and give closure to the families in Dundalk that are so distressed?