Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 February 2023

Committee on Public Petitions

Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2021: Office of the Ombudsman

Mr. Ger Deering:

I do not know if the HSE has met the broader target. The area that we have examined has been people under 65 years who are in nursing homes but really do not need to be in them. Our report, Wasted Lives, set out, I think, 16 recommendations, which the HSE accepted and are implementing. As I stated earlier, unfortunately, that is not happening as quickly as we would like it to happen. A big part of this, unfortunately, is that this issue is linked to the housing crisis generally because many of the people whom we want to see moved out of congregational settings need, hopefully, their own front door in many cases-----