Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is in the redress scheme. Some individual cases that have gone privately to court do not come under the terms of the redress scheme at the moment.

I will respond to Deputy Shortall on the size of nursing homes and private nursing homes. This is something I was concerned about and we did a huge amount of work last year on a design guide for nursing homes, which has been circulated to the entire sector. We have received information from the sector. HIQA worked closely with us on this.

When a private nursing home applies to a local authority for planning permission, the local authorities are at a bit of a loss because they do not know what best practice is. A huge amount of work has been done by HIQA, along with gerontologists and the Department, to put in place best practice. I do not need to legislate for it. When people apply for an extension to a nursing home or build a new one, they will have to attend a preplanning meeting with HIQA in advance of applying to the local authority.

There are recommendations in respect of best practice. The recommendation on size will be a family model of 84 beds per nursing home. That will not be legislated for, but it is best practice. For example, when a private operator built a nursing home in Waterford recently, HIQA was not able to register it immediately because there was an issue with balconies. If there is best practice before planning permission is applied for, we will not have a situation where further works have to be done to make a nursing home compliant.

We believe this will help the sector and also give an indication of what is required. For example, I want green areas around all nursing homes. During Covid, some nursing home residents were able to have window visits, but those living on a second or third floor could not. We have done a huge amount of work on the design guide. All of the recommendations and feedback we have received are being collated. I hope to announce the guide very shortly. It is important that we have a proper design guide for new nursing homes. It is not retrospective because we cannot put that type of pressure on nursing homes that have already been built.

One other measure announced this year was €10 million in funding to support nursing homes that were not HIQA-compliant. Up to €25,000 per nursing home, backdated to 1 January 2020, is available and many nursing homes have taken that up already. If a nursing home has to be HIQA-compliant in infection prevention and control and fire and safety and did any works from 1 January 2020 - the funding is open until November 2024 - it would be able to claim that money back. That funding is to support small and family-run nursing homes so that when HIQA says a home is not compliant and it might cost €30,000, €35,000 or €40,00 to make a change, €25,000 is available to help it become HIQA-compliant.