Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)

Last week, most of us in this and the other House watched the “RTÉ Investigates” programme on nursing homes. I want to start by welcoming the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell's statement today that he will meet with representative bodies of the private nursing home sector. He is expected to provide an update on actions undertaken by the Department of Health and HSE in recent days and an interim report to be delivered by HIQA.

What we saw last week was harrowing and scandalous. As a public representative, I was humiliated to see what was going on. However, balance needs to be in the conversation as well because 87% of all of our nursing homes are compliant.

The fair deal scheme is not the problem. Fair deal works. If people earn less, they pay less and if they have more, they pay more. There was massive investment by the previous Government into home care, day care and meals on wheels, and 24,000 hours of home care were delivered last year. The problem is that the care of older people was privatised for many years and 15 companies now care for 10,700 beds. Of all nursing homes, 87% are compliant.

The question I have relates to HIQA. Is HIQA afraid to challenge those who are too big to fall? I saw it far too often as a Minister of State. This narrative has to be challenged and questioned.

Where I come from in rural east Galway, Killimor nursing home has 100% compliance. It is a 70-bed nursing home. Portumna Retirement Village has nearly 100% compliance. At the same time, they accept - we all accept - the scrutiny that is brought to bear on local, private, family-run nursing homes because it is the care of our most vulnerable. Time and again, however, there were ample opportunities for HIQA to stop admissions to the nursing homes in the programme. Between the two nursing homes, there is no doubt that they received in excess of €15 million in 2024.

I would welcome it if the Minister appeared before the House to have a broad conversation around the care of our most vulnerable - our elderly - where we did not just focus on nursing homes. We have to look at all models of care, including home care, day services and meals on wheels. The other piece we need to have in that conversation relates to 50:50 workforce compliance to ensure that all nursing homes can have the proper permits to ensure they are able to meet the needs of their most vulnerable.