Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak. I thank those responsible for bringing this motion before House and for giving all Members an opportunity to debate it. The motion calls on the Government to take action on a number of items and I will deal with these individually.

The motion calls on the Government to commence a full public inquiry into the deaths of residents, into the quality of care in nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic and into the systemic failures in the sector during that dreadful period. I would like to put on record that I will support any motion that calls for a full public inquiry into nursing homes and their responses to the Covid 19 pandemic. We must, however, be very careful. This must not turn into a witch hunt against any nursing home and must be focused on all nursing homes and their responses. Not only must we look at how nursing homes responded we must also look at how the HSE, HIQA and other State bodies reacted. It would not be fair simply to target the nursing homes and not take into account how State bodies intervened and assisted the sector at this time.

A full public inquiry must be open and transparent and take into account the views of everybody concerned. I know from speaking to the families of many of those who sadly passed away that there are many unanswered questions. The families have a right to ask these questions. It is the very least they deserve.

This must not be a witch hunt against any single nursing home. The bottom line is that we must learn from the dreadful period when Covid-19 inflicted so much death and heartbreak to the residents of nursing homes. We must identify where the systems broke down. We must identify where supports are needed to ensure that we have robust systems in place that will prevent this happening again in the future.

As I said earlier, the families who lost loved ones in nursing homes during this period have many unanswered questions. They should be part of any public inquiry. Their experiences must be heard and documented. Only by hearing their experiences can we learn, and learn we must. We must ensure that this never happens again. It is the very least that not only the families affected deserve but also the residents and staff of the many nursing homes around the country.

It is my view that nursing homes do not become bad overnight. In my experience I have some very good memories of nursing homes and the care they give. My mother spent the last three years of her life in Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk. I could not have asked for a better place for my mother to spend those last three years. She was treated with great professional care by all the staff.

It is important to remember that, just like the HSE, the vast majority of the nursing and care staff in nursing homes are professional people who have dedicated their working lives to care for others. I would not like to see a public inquiry as a witch hunt of these people. Once again I stress that we must be very careful and not have a situation where a public inquiry simply becomes a platform to attack nursing homes. It must be open, fair and transparent. It must identify where the system failed and put in place recommendations that will ensure this never happens again.

The motion also calls for the placing of long-term residential care facility visitation guidance onto a statutory footing and to give interim authority to HIQA to enforce it. Again, in principle I agree that we do need to give this a statutory footing although I would be concerned that interim authority be given to HIQA. I believe a public inquiry will answer a lot of the questions and provide a solution to this.

The motion also calls for the Government to expedite adult safeguarding legislation and I support this call. In addition, the motion calls on the Government to ensure that all residents are treated as community clients with direct access to safeguarding social care services and all primary care services, which would include an independent social worker liaison attached to each Covid-19 cluster in long-term residential care facilities. In principle I agree with this but I urge caution in how we approach this. As I said, I genuinely believe that a full public inquiry into how the nursing homes dealt with the pandemic will provide many of the answers including putting in place the necessary safeguards for residents.

I broadly support the motion and thank those for bringing it to the House. We must be careful, however, to ensure that it does not become a public witch hunt against individual nursing homes. The families of those who so sadly lost their lives in nursing homes during this pandemic have many questions and these must be addressed and answers given. We must ensure that the scale of this never happens again and a full public inquiry that will investigate all sides of this is the only answer. We must find out where the systems broke down and put in place measures that will ensure this never happens again.

In her speech the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, said that she met with families this week and over the past weeks whose family members passed away in nursing homes. The Minister of State said that her Department will continue to talk with these families and to listen to these voices. This is very important. People have lost loved ones and they want to get their say. They want investigations and I believe that the Minister of State will do this.

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