Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week, I raised the issue of nursing homes in the context of the troubling contents of the recent report by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, into the handling of the Covid outbreak. I spoke on that occasion about the need for a formal inquiry into what has happened. In the United Kingdom, the authorities have started their inquiries into similar problems in that jurisdiction. This week, the Committee of Public Accounts at Westminster published its report, which found shocking failures in decision making. In particular, the committee condemned the decision to release 25,000 hospital patients into care homes, to free up beds, without testing those patients for Covid. This action was described in the report as "reckless" and an "appalling error". We know that more than 500 similar discharges happened in this country early on in the lockdown. That decision needs to be investigated further and the UK inquiry may perhaps give a taste of what might be discovered here.

The latest depressing development in regard to the nursing home sector in Ireland is the announcement of the closure of three facilities operated by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin. Senator Bacik adverted to one of them. The closure of the St. Mary's Centre and the Caritas Convalescent Centre, both on the Merrion Road, and St. Monica's nursing home on Belvedere Place leaves a total of 135 elderly residents to be moved elsewhere. All three facilities are facing financial difficulties and may or may not have enough funds to pay statutory redundancy to staff. The Caritas centre is closing as a direct result of the pandemic. The HSE told the centre management it could reopen with a 40% reduction in the number of beds, which made the care home financially unviable. I understood that both the St. Mary's and St. Monica's facilities had been the subject of critical HIQA inspection reports in recent years. The HSE has expressed surprise at the closures, indicating that it thought they were engaged in a process to restructure. However, the Sisters of Charity say they lack the funds needed to bring each premises up to the standards required by HIQA.

Is this the state of things to come and will other care homes fall victims to the fallout of the Covid pandemic? It is not a case of blaming those who ran the homes. If they find themselves unable to run them viably, we have to be fair in dealing with that. If the State is going to step up, it has to be done so responsibly. Unfortunately, we have had talk from irresponsible people in the other House who have no problem with seizing private property, particularly if it belongs to certain classes of people and not to others. The State has a responsibility to invest in these facilities to ensure there is a continuity of care. That involves acknowledging the investment of others, as well as the contribution of the State, in the financial running of these homes up to now. There has to be a fair solution but we should be very troubled by the closure of any of these institutions at this time. In particular, we must keep in mind the impact on those who will be most affected by such closures.