Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all the words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

'—notes the Government's commitment to introducing legislation which, inter alia, will establish the social services inspectorate function on a statutory basis;

—welcomes its commitment to extend the work of the social services inspectorate to public and private nursing homes and to resource it accordingly;

—notes the Government's commitment to ensuring that high quality care is made available to all patients in public, private and voluntary nursing homes, and in that context welcomes the preparation of standards for residential care settings for older people;

—welcomes the HSE's provision of information to the general public on nursing homes and its policy decision that all completed inspections of nursing homes should be made available to members of the public on request subject to freedom of information and data protection legislation;

—welcomes the proposed implementation by the HSE of a common national approach to the inspection of nursing homes; and

—commends its policy of supporting older people in their homes an communities in keeping with their stated wishes, and providing support to those who need residential care, and in that context acknowledges the significant investment made by the Government for the care of older people by the provision of €110 million additional revenue funding in the budget announcement for 2006 — €150 million full year cost.

I wish to share time with the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley.

I welcome this opportunity to address the House on these important issues. I acknowledge the significant investment made by the Government in the care of older people by providing €110 million in additional revenue funding in the budget announcement for 2006. The full year cost is €150 million. The Government is committed to maintaining older people in dignity and independence in their homes and, in accordance with their wishes, for as long as possible. It is also committed to providing high-quality, long-term residential care for older people when living at home is no longer possible.

The nursing home sector is governed by the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 and subsequent regulations. The Nursing Home (Care and Welfare) Regulations 1993 set out the standards to which the private nursing home sector must adhere for the purpose of registration under the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990. The regulations only apply to the private nursing home sector and do not cover public long-stay facilities for older people. However, there was a commitment in the health strategy, Quality and Fairness — A Health System for You, to extend the remit of the social services inspectorate to other social services, including residential services for older people.

Legislation is being prepared in the Department to provide for the establishment on a statutory basis of the health information and quality authority, HIQA, with the social services inspectorate, SSI, function as part of the HIQA. The SSI function will be vested in a new statutory office to be known as the Office of the Chief Inspector of Social Services. The legislation will also provide for the establishment of a registration system in respect of residential services for children, older people and people with disabilities to replace existing registration procedures in the Health (Nursing Homes) Act and the Child Care Acts. It is intended that the functions of the office of the chief inspector will include, inter alia, monitoring of standards in respect of residential services for people with disabilities, older people and children in accordance with the Child Care Act 1991 and Part 2 of the Children Act 2001 — family welfare conferences, and registering and carrying out inspections in respect of those services.

The preparation of the draft heads of this legislation is at an advanced stage and it is expected that these will be submitted to Government shortly. It is intended to publish the draft heads to allow for a period of consultation on their contents prior to commencing the drafting of the Bill, and it is anticipated that it will be published later in the year.

The SSI has operated on an administrative basis since 1999 and has been focused since then on child welfare and protection services, specifically on residential and foster care services. It is proposed that the HIQA will be the new authority for setting standards for all health and personal social services. As I have already said, the extension of the SSI remit results from commitments in the health strategy that its remit would be extended to cover other social services, including residential services for older people.

It is of the utmost importance that the public has access to information on health services. We are all agreed that in this day and age it is unsatisfactory for people not to have comprehensive and easily available information on services being provided in nursing homes. The HSE national care group manager for older persons' services established a national nursing homes steering committee in July 2005. One of the priority tasks outlined for this committee was the standardisation of inspection documentation to make the information on inspections more transparent and easily understood by both nursing home proprietors and the public. At the time, a number of different reporting templates were in use.

The HSE nursing home inspection and registration teams are using a standardised reporting template on an interim basis. The inspection report is based on the standards and criteria laid down in the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 and the Nursing Homes (Care and Welfare) Regulations 1993. A final reporting template will be agreed later this year. The information contained in the nursing home inspection reports can be accessed by the public, either by requesting a copy from the nursing home proprietors or from the HSE under the Freedom of Information Act. When the final reporting template is established, it is proposed to implement web-based access to these reports.

Nursing homes are required to be registered by the HSE. Registration certificates must be placed in a prominent position in nursing homes. If a registration has certain conditions attached to it, these will be displayed on the registration certificate. When it is necessary for older people to move into long-term residential care, it is important that they have a choice of top quality nursing home care. For this reason it is important that a robust inspection process be in place to ensure that the quality of these homes remains at a high standard. To this end, the HSE will continue to inspect nursing homes in accordance with the Nursing Homes (Care and Welfare) Regulations 1993.

In general, where problems occur, the inspection team which inspects the private nursing home will discuss its findings in detail with the owners or operators and this will generally ensure that the matters raised are addressed. The HSE may remove a nursing home from its register or refuse to register a nursing home if it is of the opinion that, inter alia, the premises to which the application or registration relates do not comply with the regulations or the continuance of services in the home will not be or is not in compliance with the regulations.

A working group——

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