Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again ask the Minister of State to commit to bringing forward legislation to protect all vulnerable people. These concerns have not been dealt with. There was no investigation of individual cases and none of the people affected was consulted. One in every six persons living in a nursing home - a total of 30,000 persons - was the subject of a care and welfare mandatory notification or unsolicited information given to HIQA, while in the past year one in every 12 suffered serious injuries requiring immediate medical or hospital treatment. That is entirely unacceptable. Some 4% or more than 1,338 of those residents suffered a fracture or fractures, while 3% or 899 cases involved confirmed or alleged abuse, including 366 cases of physical abuse, 138 of psychological abuse and 68 of sexual abuse. Some 9% of all nursing homes were referred to the HIQA regulatory risk committee, while 18% had additional non-standard conditions applied to their registration and almost 20% had to attend meetings to discuss regulatory non-compliance.

The report did not just land on the desk of the Minister of State. Rather, it was prompted by my freedom of information request and the decision of the Information Commissioner to take action on the attitude displayed HIQA towards transparency, as referred to by the Minister of State, and accountability. I have met representatives of HIQA, the Information Commissioner and senior gardaí on the issue. I ask the Minister of State to commit, as I believe he can and will, to bringing forward safeguarding legislation to protect all such vulnerable people because these cases involve serious issues which are not being dealt with. It is unacceptable that the human rights of some of the most vulnerable in society are compromised, yet none of the thousands of complaints received by HIQA was considered.

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