David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Rather than calling on HIQA to do something it cannot do, Government members would be better served by giving the authority the powers to carry out these investigations and inquiries. There are very harrowing cases and I will get to some of them momentarily in the context of people's experiences. We are discussing people's experiences during Covid-19, but I am talking about abuse and neglect. I accept that it is a minority and that the vast majority of people's experience in nursing homes is high quality and very good, but where there is negligence, we have a real problem if HIQA does not have the powers to deal with these individual cases. Has the authority made any recommendations to the Government in respect of it being able to respond better to cases of neglect or abuse of individuals in nursing homes where they happen?