Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for moving this motion, which gives us the opportunity to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on nursing homes. There has been repeated reference in recent months to the nursing homes scandal, which became evident during our response to Covid-19. We have heard the number of deaths and, as Deputies have stated, over 2,000 nursing home residents are considered to be in the Covid-19 death category, and that is approximately 40% of all Covid-related deaths in Ireland.

We do not seem to have any specific details on what happened in the various nursing home settings and how Government policy may have played a role in making that problem worse. This motion calls for a full public inquiry into nursing home deaths. I am sure when we have contact with constituents, we all hear various versions of similarly sad or heartbreaking stories of vulnerable people in our nursing homes. We need answers.

The statistics and stories indicate there is a need for a full public inquiry. What really needs to be established is the extent to which the decisions of authorities resulted in extra and avoidable Covid-related deaths. To what extent were nursing home patients denied treatment that would have resulted in their recovery and to what extent were "do not resuscitate" orders used when nursing home residents were in hospital?

We had reports over a year ago of patients being discharged from hospital with Covid-19 and going back to nursing homes, leading to major Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes. We were conducting thousands of Covid-19 tests per day on healthy people but the authorities did not have a system in place to test vulnerable and non-healthy people before being discharged from hospital and allowed back to a nursing home. All of the young, healthy people in this country were persuaded that they needed to remain locked up in their homes in order to protect vulnerable people but meanwhile, it seems, these vulnerable people were being neglected by the same people who were telling young people they had a moral duty to stay at home.

I am concerned about the proposal in this motion to put visitation guidance on a statutory footing. It may be the case that in some areas such regulation of nursing homes may be insufficient but I would be fearful of what the visitation guidance referred to in the motion might look like when implemented. We do not want to create a scenario where a husband and wife, perhaps having their final embrace, are subject to a HIQA representative standing over them with a clipboard and a stopwatch, or where no exceptions can be made for individual cases. More fundamentally, do we really want this House to decide when a husband can visit his wife in a nursing home and under what conditions? Do we really want to be deciding or be dictating to a child when he or she can see a parent. Making visitation guidelines into laws would be an overreach of the State. I have grave concerns about that.

The motion also calls for the mandated reporting of abuse and neglect of residents by nursing home staff. It is very hard to understand how this is not already mandated regardless of whether this motion as a whole is passed or not. I hope that the Minister is listening and will take the necessary steps to introduce and mandate reporting of abuse and neglect without delay.

Finally, the motion calls for accountability at organisational level. As an elected politician, it is my experience that our attitude to accountability leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, I do believe that the motion is correct in calling for the introduction of accountability at an organisational level with regard to penalties and criminal offences, where failures to govern safely in accordance with HIQA regulations result in the loss of health or life for residents, in the case of that service. It is not only at an organisational level that such accountability should exist. Those making the policy decisions should also be accountable.

I also want to voice my utter dismay at the abandonment of nursing homes with the stopping of the temporary assistance payment scheme. Not extending it in line with the other supports says it all.

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