Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I clarify once again. If it is a public nursing home, complaints can be made to the HSE, using its complaints procedure or subsequently to the Ombudsman if people are not happy with that. For private nursing homes, complaints have to be made through the private nursing home's own complaints procedure or through the appeals procedure if people are not happy with that. If it is elder abuse, regardless of where it is, complaints can be made to the HSE. It is not the role of HIQA currently to investigate individual complaints.

I must ask whether these complaints have been made through the appropriate channels. Have these complaints been made to the HSE and have these complaints been made to the private nursing homes themselves? I would be concerned if they have not been investigated. However, the fact that they have not been investigated by HIQA, which does not investigate individual complaints, is a very different point from saying they have not been investigated at all. Perhaps the Deputy might clarify that. Is he claiming that they have not been investigated at all or just that they have not been investigated by HIQA, which does not have the authority to investigate individual complaints in the first place?

In my meetings with representatives of HIQA, they have not requested this power. I will check with the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, if they have done so in their meetings with her. If they request it and they can assure me it does not require additional resources and it is willing to take on that existing role from the HSE, from the Ombudsman and from the private nursing homes and the existing appeals procedures, then I am happy to give that full consideration.

Lest anyone thinks otherwise, I want to clarify that the fact that HIQA does not investigate independent individual complaints does not mean they are not investigated. HSE nursing home complaints should go to the HSE and if people are not happy with that, they go to the Ombudsman. When it comes to private nursing homes, every private nursing home has to have its own complaints procedure and appeals procedure in place.

See this speech in context