Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

When I think of HIQA, I am often reminded of an article about the British royal family that stated that they believed that everything outside of Buckingham Palace smelled like fresh paint. HIQA is probably the same. Announced inspections are not working and give people far too much time. There have to be unannounced inspections. HIQA needs to be better resourced. None of us wants our loved ones to be treated in such a manner. That is a given and we do not need to see it. However, HIQA is sometimes all that stands between a vulnerable person and mistreatment. The Government - I was about to say "we", but I am taking no responsibility for this - should give HIQA the powers it needs.

In 2004, the Rostrevor nursing home was investigated by the health board. On one occasion, bed sores on an elderly incontinent patient were found to have been contaminated by faecal matter. Before prosecutions even took place, the health board went to the High Court to try to have the home shut down. There was evidence that staffing, training and drug administration rules had all been breached. One nurse had been rostered for 72 hours in one week. No fire drills were carried out, despite residents smoking in their rooms. The owners at the time, the Lipsetts, argued that they had resolved the problems. There were no powers to shut the home down at that stage. The owner was struck off the nursing register because she failed to act on sexual abuse allegations. That happened between 2004 and 2005. Micheál Martin was the Minister for Health and Children for part of that time. In 2011, I had occasion to be in that nursing home when it was eventually shut down. If I live to be 1,000 years old, I will never forget what I saw and heard from the people working there. The way in which the residents were treated shocked me to my very core. I did not think it was possible that people could be treated in that manner. It was very shocking. The workers were treated every bit as badly as the patients and residents in the nursing home.

Two weeks ago, I sat in my constituency office for well over an hour with a woman whose dad had been a resident in the Beneavin Manor nursing home. She detailed to me the litany of complaints she had made on behalf of her father. She had brought them to the attention of HIQA, the owner and the upper people in the nursing home. It was during Covid. Her dad was only allowed to have one visit, but he got that one visit every single day. Hard and all as it was for her to live it, it was hard to hear about it as well. I thought afterwards about the people who did not have anybody to speak up for them. She was in every day to see her dad and she could still see he was being mistreated. What about the people who do not have anyone to speak up for them? That is why HIQA is supposed to be there. That is why we need the adult safeguarding legislation. We need the Government to stop talking about it because talking about it is interfering with the Government actually doing something about it. We really need to see that legislation, not just a "strong commitment". We need to have a conversation about privatisation. When profit motive is introduced into the care of vulnerable people, this is the inevitable consequence. Privatisation is Government policy; it needs to be reversed.

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