Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 September 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Examination of HIQA Report on the Impact of Covid-19 on Nursing Homes in Ireland

Photo of Jennifer Carroll MacNeillJennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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What the Chairman has said is very important as it speaks to the empathy shared by everybody on this committee and in the Parliament. We go about our work in a technical way but there are people on this committee who lost close relatives in nursing homes because of Covid-19 and they share the personal experience of so many families. That is being represented today.

We also go about our work in a technical way and that is how I will approach this if nobody minds. I have a couple of technical questions on inspections. I know the matter has arisen in different contexts with Deputies Shortall and Devlin and although I do not wish to repeat anything, I have some specific questions that I would not mind asking that may involve a tiny amount of crossover.

The witnesses spoke about the number of inspectors that the authority has. It has 17 and there is sanction for seven more.