Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

The failures of care exposed by the media in recent weeks are not just a failure of one private nursing home operator. This is a failure by our State, a failure of public policy, a failure of regulation, and an abject failure to uphold the dignity of those who have no option but to put their care into others' hands. It would be naive of us to think that we have seen is anything other than the tip of the iceberg. Just look at Aoife Hegarty's reports today. The abuse, the poor care, the corners cut and older men and women lying alone in their own waste are because the company that operates the nursing homes that they call home will not employ the staff they need to appropriately run the places that aligns with the fluffy PR, what we see on their websites, and what they expect to see.

This is the conclusion of two things. One is the calculated and deliberate crowding in of private operators over the course of 25 years, propped up by our own money and a regulatory regime that is hands-off and is not feared by a sector that owns almost 80% of all nursing homes in the State. Combined, this is a recipe for disaster. The perverse irony is that it is those vulnerable, ageing citizens, who paid for the tax incentives to develop a slew of private nursing homes in the 2000s, who are now paying the price themselves in the very homes built on their backs, paying on the double now with their dignity. We have an industry that constantly has its paw out for additional resources from the State. At the very least, if the Minister of State is to sign off on additional fair deal money, the industry should be expected to engage in a joint labour committee, JLC, employment regulation order arrangement for a fairer deal for their workers. This is what the State demands, for example, of the childcare sector, using the JLC system to ensure that State money is properly used to improve the pay and conditions of staff. The same should apply in the nursing home sector.

If we learned anything from the scandalous deaths at Dealgan House Nursing Home in Dundalk in 2020, it should be that there should be a national clinical governance programme, operated by the HSE and applying to all nursing homes. In the other words, in the interests of all older people and all residents, there should be HSE oversight. That should be standard and applied right across the board, whether the nursing home is public or private.

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