Manus Boyle (Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses for attending. I will just ask a few direct questions here. What we saw on RTÉ was really dreadful. Everybody in the country has an opinion about a nursing home. It would be the last place they would want to send anybody after what we saw on the television. How are we going to change the culture and behaviour in nursing homes? This seems to be going on a long time. It is coming to the fore now but if it has been going on a long time, it is very hard to get staff to change their culture and their behaviour. What can HIQA do about that?

HIQA has a large duty of care here. I did not know the authority was notified 12 days before the programme. I know in my business if something went wrong and someone reported something, I would be there within the next two hours to try to see what was going on. We need to change the way we think. There are 95 nursing homes under review. Why is it left so late? There should be a basic staffing level in every nursing home so that if there are, say, five patients, the home has to have six or seven staff. I am only new to this but I know from looking after grandparents and listening to my mother and father and so on there is a great lack of staff in nursing homes. It seems to be cut to the bone. Whatever they can get away with to get through the day. HIQA needs to enforce something so that if a nursing home is operating on any given day they need ten staff or whatever. There has to be something because once the rules are put aside even a wee bit then they try to get away with it.