Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)

Since the "RTÉ Investigates" programme relating to the treatment and care of our older people within nursing homes, it has come to light that it is extremely bad. It has been eight years since HIQA appeared before the committee. It is about time that it does again. It is a failure of the State that our older people are being treated in this way when they should be given the dignity and respect they deserve as they age. It is quite concerning. It was quite upsetting to watch that programme. If people across the country had an older member of their family in a nursing home, they would have been struck by the fact that inspectors from HIQA visited a number of those nursing homes and found no fault. That has to be questioned.

Since it was set up as a State body, HIQA has failed. It is about time for it to come before the Committee of Public Accounts to be scrutinised. Basics like incontinence pads and hand wipes were not being made available by private companies. In most cases, it is foreign private companies that are running nursing homes. The biggest shareholder in Emeis is the French state. The company went into liquidation in France. Various European countries are benefiting from older people in private nursing homes. That is completely wrong. The privatisation of nursing homes is wrong. It is a failure of the State that older people are being treated in this way. The majority of older people in difficult circumstances are put in nursing homes by family members under the pretence that they will be looked after correctly. What is happening is deeply upsetting, frustrating and embarrassing. It is about time HIQA provided answers. We all share the same opinion on that, including the Chair. We might discuss including that in our work programme and decide on a date for HIQA to come before us.