Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister's reply and agree with the decision to extend the deadline for various institutions to comply with HIQA requirements to 2021, because it was not going to be possible to reach it in the short term. The Minister said the HSE would submit a plan to HIQA in the coming weeks. We expect something on the future of health care facilities over a six-year period to be a secret document, and I ask that it be published at that stage.

It is important that everything possible be done to reassure residents, their families and staff following the upset caused by the manner in which this matter has been handled in recent weeks. Some measure should be put in place to alleviate that. In view of the five-year timescale and given that places such as Abbeyleix could take up to 50 residents, there may be a solution. In recent years, 30 to 35 people have been accommodated, but that figure has now been reduced to a tiny number. There is a good case for allowing that number to increase to 30 or 35 as in recent years and to use the five-year breathing space to facilitate such a solution.

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