Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on this. We have had many battles over St. Brigid's hospital, Carrick-on-Suir. We have been waiting for equality and fairness for farming families and self-employed people. My colleagues in the Rural Independent Group and I will table amendments because there are still anomalies regarding farmers not being treated fairly. Regardless of how long it took to get this right, everyone accepted it was wrong. It took four or five years to get to where we are. Former Minister of State, Jim Daly, did a lot and tried his best. I acknowledge that it was the current Minister of State who got it over the line. I compliment her on that. There are still aspects that are so inherently unfair, however. There is a yearly cap of 7.5% of the value of the home, capped after three years, but I am referring to those with a farm or business. We should remember a farm is no good unless a farmer is able to work it. If it is going to be stripped away for years, it is no good. What will happen those who were severely punished? I realise the legislation cannot be made retrospective but surely the individuals should have some redress because farms and small businesses have been rendered useless by the annual charges. We have to look after our elderly. They were always revered in this country and we respected them but now there is a tragic situation.

The differences in the prices of public and private nursing homes, as mentioned by Deputy Canney, are shocking. The cost of the public ones is shocking. It is also shocking that there can be so many anomalies.

I salute the staff, management, nursing home owners and their families for the sterling work they have done in the past 14 months. They were abandoned by the Government but they did great work. I salute Mr. Dermot Dougan of Clonmel especially because he has added a massive extension to Melview nursing home. There is a spanking new, pristine nursing home only up the road from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in Carrickbeg. There are supposed to be negotiations on taking patients out of St. Brigid's, which is no longer with us thanks to the Minister of State and the Minister. I ask the Minister of State to meet Councillors Kieran Bourke and David Dunne and the action committee, nurses and doctors. She is responsible for the care of the elderly and palliative care. All the people going into the facility were older people but now the palliative care beds are denied to the people of the surrounding area, including the Minister of State's county, Port Láirge. It is very unfair and downright wrong. The people funded those beds and all the associated technical equipment. I ask the Minister of State to have an open meeting with the relevant individuals.

There is no point in telling Damien Tiernan and Waterford Local Radio that he spoke to them and offered a meeting. They were not offered a meeting. They were refused.

Getting back to what happened in the nursing homes, 2,000 people died in them. Just think about it. They could not get PPE, staff or anything. They were crying out for help. Doctors were refusing to go in to sign the death certificates. Nurses and nurse managers were asked to sign the death certificates. They were put in body bags and gone and the families did not see them. It was horrific. We must have an investigation into what happened. It was shocking. Some 750 people picked up the virus in hospitals and died, including a good friend of my own, John McGrath, Ballyporeen, who I spoke to on Christmas Eve. He went into Cork University Hospital, and he and three other patients on the ward got Covid, and he is no longer with us. That is a shocking indictment of the HSE, the Minister for Health and anybody involved with it.

We have to have a totally independent review of what happened. There is no point in setting up an investigation chaired by some Secretary General from some Department. We must get an outside, external, independent person from a different country to see the blackguarding going on with the people in nursing homes. They were abandoned. There was no PPE. PPE on the way to them was diverted, as was oxygen. If we did not have oxygen, we would all die. Oxygen which was so badly needed was stolen from the nursing homes. That kind of blackguarding and the mismanagement in the HSE since it was set up is just appalling, with the lack of accountability and the wages paid to the CEO. It is despicable. We clap for the nurses but we will not pay them.

Some 75,000 people signed up for Ireland's call, in the spirit of the meitheal. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle loves Irish terms. Only 3,500 were taken on. They wanted, in the spirit of the meitheal, to serve their country, but they were denied because of a conglomerate and a cabal in the HSE. It kept all these people out, saying it wanted to keep and control all the overtime for itself. Caring for the people is one of its last worries. The Health Information and Quality Authority is not fit for purpose and should be disbanded too. If it suits it, it will come in, but it will not go into the crowded corridors in the hospital in Limerick or South Tipperary General Hospital, but it will come in and close down good nursing homes. There is a lot of blackguarding and unfair treatment by HIQA. We need a full and proper inquiry, not a toothless inquiry, into what happened in nursing homes and hospitals.

See this speech in context