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

I welcome this debate. It is appropriate and timely it happens as restrictions are being eased and that we all pay fine and sincere tribute to all the people who worked in our homes, in hospitals, on the front line, on ambulances and so on. We pay tribute also to those who sadly passed away in this awful tragedy called Covid. About a year ago this week my own brother-in-law passed away from Covid in a nursing home. He was very well looked after, as were thousands of other people who died of Covid. However, some were not looked after well at all and that is why we need a full and complete inquiry, especially into the only home in the country, namely, Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk, that the HSE went into and took over. It is clear to me and to the families concerned that the Department is avoiding a decision on this. We were told by the Taoiseach last week the Department is looking at options. I welcome that and ask the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and her senior Minister to engage with the families to bring closure, transparency and accountability. I am not like the Sinn Féin spokesman who said he was not interested in accountability in this area. I am interested. The families of the people who passed away in these homes are interested in accountability. They demand it. If it had been 22 or 23 children who died in the home that the HSE went in to take over, would there not be a public inquiry? Would there not be protest marches? Would there not be ructions in this House over it? Age counts, old age matters and people who died in nursing homes were not properly looked after, especially in this particular case. Today I received word of a home in, I understand, County Clare where a protected disclosure was made, I think, to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler's Department, if not her office. I only got word of it this afternoon. I will send her the details later but it is very concerning. One thing we really need after this awful pandemic is a national centre of excellence for the training of all staff, be they nurses, healthcare staff, healthcare assistants, nursing home managers and so on. We need the best possible practice internationally to be at our centre of excellence and we need proper and appropriate national guidance on medical correctness, proper procedure and proper care. If that comes out of this appalling disaster of Covid, then that at least will be an important change.

The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is present also, has done an excellent job on our addiction services. I welcome his speech and the work being done. Nevertheless, there is a review of drug addiction services in the Louth-Meath area that remains unpublished despite requests from me and a freedom of information request that has not been answered to date. It has now gone beyond its time and I must appeal it internally. What is being hidden by the Department or by the HSE? Why can we not see what happened? Why can we not see the impact and know the impact of Covid on drug addiction services in our region? There is a need for change and change is in the air and is coming but we must lead it as a Government and as a Dáil.

There is another serious issue that must be addressed, that is, the question of young people in our nursing homes. There are 1,330 people aged under 65 years living in nursing homes. Of those, 45% are 60 or more years of age and 20% are younger than 50 years of age. This number is very concerning. We must eliminate the practice of accommodating younger people with serious disabilities in nursing homes, which is a commitment of the programme for Government. The Ombudsman's report found many people were prisoners in the homes. They only went in there on a temporary basis but there is nowhere for them to go. It is expensive, obviously, to set them up in their own homes or their own accommodation but that must happen. It is unfair and wrong that they are prisoners and they cannot get out. Their choice is to leave but they do not have that choice right now. I urge the Minster of State that we do that. I do not have much time left.

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