Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Byrne. We know this has not been enacted. That is a further indication that there is no real appetite to address the matter. That is the problem. I also propose that a different way of working be adopted so that the commission would not have to look at every aspect of safeguarding an older person but, rather, it could deal with this in sections. Those of us on this committee, and people throughout the country, are acutely aware that older people continue to be seriously exposed in different care settings because of the absence of any proper regulation. We just saw the tragic impact of that over the past year with the unregulated market-based approach to nursing home care, with 80% of nursing home care put out to the market with virtually no regulation whatever. The other side of that is that home care remains completely unregulated.

I put it to the witnesses that there is a severe urgency in the need to regulate those particular areas because we know the price older people and families throughout the country have paid for the lack of regulation in nursing home care. There is no statutory regulation for it at all and there are no ratios for staffing, for example. We saw the tragic consequences of that over the past year. Has the commission considered dealing with the two pressing health areas relating to nursing home care and home care? Could it deal with those two areas separately instead of attempting to take on very wide-ranging work taking in every aspect of an older person's life, which further delays action in the area?