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

I have a relative-in-law who is in a nursing home. He is being looked after extremely well and there is a very good mix of people working there. The problem is that when people are selecting a nursing home, they look for one near where they live and they do not know anything else about it. They go in and sign the contract of care, but there is no mandatory requirement on the nursing home, whether public or private, to say what its staffing levels are or whether there are other ancillary services such as speech therapy, physiotherapy, and so on. One will always find there is a charge of €10 or €20 a week for something that many people cannot avail of because 70% of the people in our nursing homes have dementia. There is a huge lack of transparency about the €60,000 or more that people pay for their care. People say the buildings are fine and they often look lovely, but the quality of care varies significantly.

I welcome Ms Ní Sheaghdha's comments and I suggest that if she has other views on the matter that she has not expressed, she should do so and we may include them as recommendations in our report. Until we get that certainty, quality of care and proportionality between qualified staff and medical and nursing need, there will not be proper and adequate care in these institutions.