Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue with the Taoiseach about which he has received correspondence from the alliance supporting nursing homes. It wrote to the Taoiseach on 21 June 2024 regarding the national vetting service which, I believe, crosses Departments. I imagine that as it is dealt with under the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012, it has implications across Government with regard to the vetting of people who work with children and vulnerable persons.

The issue raised by the alliance with the Taoiseach in the letter - it has not received anything but the briefest of acknowledgement - is the fact that its organisation, which represents smaller family-run and independent nursing homes, are required to vet their staff. Under the legislation, once one is deemed to be an "relevant organisation" which works in that area, one should receive access to a portal for the National Vetting Bureau where one vets one's staff. It appears that this organisation, the alliance, is being denied that right because it is being monopolised by Nursing Homes Ireland, which represents bigger, sometimes international, operations in the nursing homes sector that receive the vetting from the National Vetting Bureau for nothing, as it is done with public money. Nursing Homes Ireland is charging its members €10 per vetting of people and charging €25 to people who are not members of its organisation. In other words, this organisation is making money out of a publicly-provided vetting service and is excluding others from being able to get the vetting which they should be able to get under the legislation. The alliance describes this as a scandal and as profiteering off the back of public money. They want to know why this is happening because they say that it flies in the face of the legislation. I ask the Taoiseach, therefore, to get back to this organisation.

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