Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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113. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the timeline for an inquiry into nursing home care during the Covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51614/22]

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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We have already had a discussion. The Minister accepts that there needs to be a mechanism to provide necessary answers to families who lost loved ones. I am talking specifically about those who lost loved ones in Dealgan House nursing home. We need a timeline for when the work the Minister says his officials in the Department is doing will be complete. Will he give us the timeline and as much detail as possible on the type of mechanism being considered?

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I ask that the Deputy bear with me for just one second. I apologise.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is no problem. This question is similar to one asked earlier.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I am asking for a timeline for when the Minister will have the mechanism and, if he can go into any detail, the type of mechanism we are talking about.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The timelines will be worked through once we see the options. As we discussed earlier, families, some of whom I have met, have very reasonable and important questions. Essentially, they want to know what happened. In some cases, their loved ones died during the first Covid surge and they were faced with unimaginable difficulties in desperately trying to find out what was going on when not able to access the nursing home. All of the nursing homes came under enormous pressure but it was particularly bad in certain homes. Families want answers and access to the truth and they must have it. The Government and I want to find a process whereby those families can get those answers without the whole thing becoming legalistic and taking years with the risk that they may not ultimately get those answers. We have various options that we have seen work well in the past. For example, Dr. Scally's inquiry into CervicalCheck worked well. This was not a public inquiry. Dr. Scally took private testimony and produced what most of us agree was a very good and very useful report.

I know that there are people who are looking for a public inquiry but the problem with a public inquiry is that those involved, including those running the nursing homes, take legal advice, as they should. In the past, we have often seen legal teams go to the High Court to seek injunctions. We are then in a very difficult position because it becomes increasingly difficult to ask the questions that need to be asked and to get answers to them. This is further complicated by the fact that there are now quite a number of active court cases ongoing. As we all know, the legal advice that some of these nursing homes will get is that they should not participate. We need to find a mechanism that avoids all of that and gets the families the answers they deserve.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I accept that there are difficulties but it is fair to say what the families want is a full public inquiry. The Minister has said that his officials are working on a mechanism that will provide them with answers. We need to see what that mechanism is going to be as soon as possible. We are already very late into the game. We are dealing with families who had to deal with a great deal of trauma in losing loved ones. There are specific circumstances with regard to Dealgan House and the fact that the HSE determined to take it over. The families require a number of answers but we also need to learn the necessary lessons for elder care in the future. We need to ensure that we do not create conditions such as these in the future because we do not know what conditions we may face. That is what we need as soon as possible.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's final point is very important. Have we systematically looked at what did and did not work and made decisions to improve protections? The answer is that we have. The expert nursing home group was put in place and came back with some very comprehensive recommendations. There has been full support from the Government and a lot of investment through the budgets. Those recommendations have been rolled out at pace and have made, and continue to make, a big difference in providing the best possible protections for those living in long-term residential care.