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

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and acknowledge her interest in care of older people. My criticisms are not of the Minister of State personally but of the Government, Government policy, the lack of delivery and the lack of hope for people.

At 3 a.m. on 3 April 2020, a most appalling and evil act was perpetrated upon an elderly lady who was a full-time resident in a nursing home. On 30 July 2020, a court case took place and I welcome the fact that it was speedy and that an appropriate 11-year sentence was handed down to the perpetrator. On 5 August 2020, a few weeks after the court case, HIQA visited the nursing home in question. I am not going to name it because of the sensitivities of other people involved. As I said, HIQA went there and one of the reasons it did so was that it had received notifications concerning the protection of residents. This was after the court case and after the 11-year jail sentence was handed down. HIQA deemed that the home, in terms of the protection of residents, was - believe it or not - compliant. HIQA said there was evidence to show that where allegations of abuse were made, the provider acted according to best practice in ensuring that the alleged victim was prioritised, protected and provided with the necessary levels of support. The provider was "keen to learn from instances where allegations were made". The fact is that on the files of that nursing home, as I understand it, there are at least seven other cases of allegations of rape or sexual interference. There was medical evidence that there was vaginal bleeding and infections. There was evidence that this lady and other people in this nursing home had serious medical issues as a result of the allegations that they made, which were not believed at all. This does not seem to have been looked at by HIQA when it went into the home. How in the name of God can HIQA give a "compliant" report to a nursing home when somebody working there had been given an 11-year jail sentence for raping a woman? The files, which were not looked at by HIQA or shown to it, show that a significant number of other people were abused.

I have a number of questions but I appreciate that the Minister of State may not have the answer to all of them today. HIQA says that it looked at 21 files. How many files were in that nursing home? Were there any files of females who had been living there while the perpetrator was employed there that were not looked at? That goes to the heart of the weakness in the system, which the Government, the Minister of State and I, as a Deputy, want to protect people. There are more than 500 nursing homes here and 31,000 people will sleep tonight in those homes but we have not guaranteed their safety. We have not ensured their protection. HIQA, for whatever reason, gave this nursing home a clean bill of health in its report without knowing the full facts. The facts are, according to a reply to a parliamentary question, that in 2020 there were 18 sexual abuse allegations in relation to nursing homes and centres for people with disabilities and 14 further allegations in 2021. Was HIQA notified of those sexual abuse allegations? If so, why did its inspectors not know about it? If HIQA was not notified, why did its inspectors not look at the files when it went into the nursing home?

There is a serious deficit in relation to the powers of HIQA and the unacceptable outcome of its inspection, where it gave a nursing home a "compliant" report when clearly the home was not. Huge evil was uncovered at the time that HIQA inspectors were in that nursing home.

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