Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)

I am from Laois and live in Portlaoise. Unfortunately, when I was watching the programme I recognised some of the residents and workers. It is very difficult for them. I have a lot of questions so I will go through them and I request brief answers.

I have to correct the record by noting that The Residence, Portlaoise opened in October or November of 2023, not in 2024. There have been 40 notifications of abuse and 17 reports of serious incident or injury to a resident that resulted in hospital admission or death. There have been four notifications of unexplained absence. That is where a resident was able to get out of the nursing home. I want to hear about these. I am happy to hear the witnesses talking about the footage that was not shown. Living in Portlaoise, I know there was a lot that was not shown. I have families reaching out to me every day. Some families did not give permission because of the severity of the abuse. There is a whole other level of investigation that needs to go on.

The witnesses spoke of culture and of bringing in ways for staffing levels to be notified daily. Do they have plans for this? We know everyone clocks in and out so why is HIQA not notified?

Admissions to The Residence, Portlaoise were paused when all this was going on. I think it was in April. After admissions were restricted or paused, however, it still took in more residents. Ballard Lodge, another nursing home in Portlaoise, closed. We will not go into it but they were able to move from one situation to another situation. Because it is a private nursing home, it is allowed to get away with this. What powers does HIQA need to have a system in place that will work? As far as I can see, the public system is okay to deal with it but if it is private, there are no consequences so they can do what they like.