Dr. Sarah Donnelly:

I thank the Senator for raising the issue of safe staffing again. It is critical. My colleague in UCD, Professor Jonathan Drennan, is doing a large-scale piece of research on that in nursing homes in Ireland. We need to look at what it indicates. I did some work in 2022 with the Irish dementia working group. They are people living with dementia who are part of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. One of their key recommendations for human rights and adult safeguarding in nursing homes was the need for staffing levels to align with those recommended in the common summary assessment form, which every older person or person with a disability completes when transitioning to a nursing home. It is as basic as that because we have to take into consideration different dependency levels and staffing needs and accommodate that. HIQA absolutely has a role in monitoring safe staffing.

Things can be done there.