David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I was travelling and got caught traffic. I welcome the witnesses. My first question is for Ms Casey. I also welcome the Bill. We had a lot of discussion about nursing homes during Covid. I met HIQA officials a number of times to discuss their understanding of the sector and, more importantly, how they see the State and the HSE understanding the nursing home sector. When HIQA came before the committee after the worst of Covid something its representatives said was quite stark. They stated their observation was that the HSE did not fully understand a sector it was substantially funding, that is, the private nursing home sector. I will not rehearse all the issues that happened during Covid because it is a separate piece of work that will have to be done. There was a lot of suffering in nursing homes. The issues of quality care, safeguarding, regulations and standards in nursing homes came to the fore and they need to be dealt with. HIQA said it had a sense that the HSE did not fully understand the private nursing home sector and the Bill does not directly deal with this. It permits a chief inspector to collect a wide range of data depending on what is specified by the Minister. What additional information does the Department believe would be helpful to build a better understanding in the HSE of what happens in private nursing homes and how they can be better supported?