Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I will answer on HIQA specifically and ask the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, for his perspective as well. HIQA plays a crucial role in ensuring high-quality and safe care for patients using our health and social care services. The Government strongly supports HIQA in maintaining and strengthening its critical regulatory role. While it provides an important role, it also needs improvement. A number of changes to both primary and secondary legislation have been made in recent years to expand and reinforce HIQA’s functions. Under the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023, HIQA’s remit has been expanded into private health services and hospitals. Other legislative amendments have strengthened the regulatory framework in nursing homes, giving HIQA additional new powers in the areas of enforcement, data collection and compliance notices.

My Department has committed significant financial support to HIQA, reflecting its expanded regulatory role. The budget allocation of non-capital expenditure from my Department to HIQA in 2025 is €35 million, which is a considerable increase of more than 60% compared with the €21.4 million allocation in 2022. It is likely HIQA’s regulatory responsibilities will expand further under future developments, such as the patient safety (licensing) Bill, the provisions of which I took to Cabinet this week.

I met with HIQA last week. Along with the Minister of State and I, it is considering what is needed to further strengthen its regulatory role and processes, in particular to reflect the changing dynamic of the nursing home market and sector and the ownership structures within those. That is important. I will continue to work closely with HIQA in reviewing its powers and exploring ways to improve and strengthen its inspection and regulatory regime. As I said, that includes exploring how HIQA can best deal with regulating larger corporate entities that operate in the nursing home space.

It is important to say - and I know the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, has been strong on this - that there is a need to report in real time, rather than some months later. We must have better visibility over this at an earlier stage. HIQA is an important institution in this State which has done exceptionally good work. I have good confidence in it. Everything, be it this House, HIQA and everything else, needs process and institutional development improvement in response to these events.

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