Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for the presentation. The work HIQA does is absolutely tremendous and badly needed. It is obviously keeping the person with the disability at centre stage and that is most important.

Ms Grogan mentioned that 1,220 inspections were carried out in 2021. She also said that during the period of Covid, many people were doing a lot of work online. A number of these centres she mentioned failed to ensure the safety and quality of proper support for the residents. Where did she see most of these failures? What actions are being taken to address this decline? Obviously, it was worse during the pandemic because of the isolation and so on. Perhaps she could fill us in on that.

The Covid pandemic was a very challenging time during which there were many issues in both private and public nursing homes. There were denials about deaths in the homes etc. Can Ms Grogan tell us something, if possible, about HIQA’s role in dealing with that? What lessons have been learned and what practices and policies will be put in place to prevent something similar from happening again?

Ms Grogan mentioned safeguarding legislation for the registration and monitoring of designated centres. She also said there is a narrow definition of designated centres, so there needs to be a broader definition. Perhaps she can explain how that can be done and the way it should be approached.

There were poor findings regarding governance and management in several settings. What is the difference between the amount in the public and the private settings? What is the proportion in terms of the places that HIQA looked at and what happened?

Ms Grogan spoke of people in large complexes and otherwise. The city council has a policy of trying to put people into sheltered housing. Many of these people are elderly, have disabilities, mental health issues etc. Is it better they are brought into or left in the community? I have always believed that people are better off dealt with in their community. What is Ms Grogan’s opinion on the policy where there will be a financial contribution and people will move into sheltered housing? It is a contradiction. It is said that these large complexes do not give us the best outcomes and that trying to keep people in their communities, in their home or where they have been brought up, with their family surrounding them etc. is the right way to deal with people. Can she elaborate on some of those issues?