Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree that nursing homes provide a critically important service. My understanding is that, to date, four expert panel progress reports have been published on the issue of how we advance and improve them. The key areas of progress include the provision of State supports to nursing homes. More than €22 million was provided in budget 2022 for the implementation and mainstreaming of a range of recommendations in the expert panel report, including the establishment of permanent community support teams, the development of permanent community support teams, the development and piloting of clinical governance for nursing homes and the development of a safe staffing framework for the sector. It is important that we learn from Covid. Significant supports were put in place but there was real concern during Covid, especially in the early stages, in respect of how nursing homes operated. I refer the Deputy to that report and to the implementation timelines. That is critical in the context of trying to address some of those concerns.

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