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

More than 2,000 people who were residents of nursing homes died during Covid-19. Rightly and properly, the Government funded supports for nursing homes to the tune of, as of December 2022, €145 million. There are problems, however, regarding the funding of some of those nursing homes. An example on the HIQA website is Ratoath Manor nursing home, which received more than €405,000 in temporary assistance payment scheme, TAPS, supports. Yet it is quite clear that the HIQA inspectors are not assured that this is a well governed nursing home. There was extensive non-compliance over three consecutive inspections from September 2021 to March 2022. Some of those assessments were rated red or high risk. Repeated non-compliance was found in infection control, medicine and pharmaceutical services, the rights of residents, governance etc. This case demands that a forensic audit be undertaken of this entire €145 million and, specifically, regarding this nursing home.

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