Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach is not a commentator on these matters. He is after giving me a whole spiel there that told me precisely nothing, with all due respect. A total of 198 complaints were made against a nursing home with not a cent of financial penalty. There were no consequences until RTÉ showed up. This tells us the system is not working. It is not sufficient for the Taoiseach to take to his feet and offer tea and sympathy. We all know how difficult it is for anybody to make a decision to place a loved one in a nursing home and how difficult it is for the person themselves to lose that sense of autonomy that comes with all of that. The Taoiseach should know also there are people throughout the State terrified they would ever end up in a nursing home. More families are worried sick about the treatment of their loved ones in these facilities. I have made the point on the corporate takeover of care and the Government has facilitated that. HIQA cannot investigate individual complaints.

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