Dáil debates

Thursday, 12 June 2025

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

5:25 am

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sherlock for highlighting this really important issue. The short answer is that I believe the State is too reliant on the private market when it comes to nursing home provision. This is why we established a commission of care. We need to look at the entire model of how we care for older people in this country. I also think the fact we have one statutory scheme as to how we care for older people, which is nursing homes, and we do not yet have a statutory scheme for home care, is another issue. I will commit with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, to work constructively with Deputy Sherlock and her party on this issue. I will also ask that consideration be given to some of the issues Deputy Sherlock has referenced with regard to the 2022 report.

I want to make the point that we need to get the safeguarding legislation in place. This has been very apparent in what we have seen in recent days with RTÉ's very excellent work. The Minister will bring to Cabinet within the next month the adult safeguarding policy and seek Government permission to draft the safeguarding Bill. We will then work intensively and constructively with Members across the House to get the right piece of legislation passed in a timely manner. This is really important.

I have been reflecting on this. I fully accept that people work in very demanding environments but I also believe that what stems from what we have seen in our television screens in recent days are real questions of personal accountability. There are laws in our land today in relation to assault and how we conduct ourselves. I urge that a referral is made to An Garda Síochána with regard to the footage we saw. What I saw with my own two eyes were haunting scenes of people being, in my view, physically assaulted in their home. The Government has a responsibility to do things absolutely but so too do people who carry out those actions. There is a need for a Garda investigation into what we saw with regard to the individual actions of people in relation to that.

HIQA also has questions to answer and I welcome the fact that the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is due to meet it, along with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. HIQA is good organisation in many ways. I have known HIQA for a long time and I think it has done good. There are good people in HIQA. There were serious shortcomings also in this regard and there can be no doubt about that. There are actions that should have been identified and acted upon at a much earlier stage.

Yes, we need to have a much broader discussion about the model of care we have for older people in this country. That work is under way. Of course pay and terms and conditions, just as Deputy Sherlock rightly says are factors in other sectors such as childcare, are factors in this also. We also need to get the legislative basis right. We need the safeguarding legislation. We also need to make sure that HIQA understands its role and has all the tools it needs. I also think we should look at statutory home care as an alternative legal basis for how we care for older people. These are the three areas where I would like to see action shortly.

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