Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)
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I am glad to be given the opportunity to raise this important issue and thank the Minister of State for being here today. As he knows, at the start of last year his predecessor, Kathleen Lynch, announced one of the most comprehensive investment programmes in public nursing home facilities in the history of the State. As part of this €400 million investment programme by the Government, 33 existing home facilities throughout the country will be replaced and 57 others will be refurbished or extended. Before this breakthrough announcement, many communities feared that some nursing homes would be closed because of a failure to meet the required HIQA standards. With this significant funding programme, that will now not be the case.

In County Roscommon, the Plunkett home in my town of Boyle and Áras Mháthair Phóil in Castlerea benefit from €1.14 million and €850,000, respectively. The single biggest beneficiary in County Roscommon was the Sacred Heart Hospital in Roscommon town. After a long and hard fought campaign by many stakeholders, including myself, €9 million in funding was finally secured to upgrade its facilities. The funding allocation of €9 million will ensure that the facility will become compliant with the environmental aspects of HIQA standards by 2021. It is important to state that HIQA inspections of the Sacred Heart Hospital have confirmed the excellence of care that residents receive, which is reassuring for residents and their families. If I may be a little parochial, my mother, who is 89 years of age, has been in the Sacred Heart Hospital for the past two months. My family and I are absolutely delighted with the care she receives and I thank the doctors, nurses and staff there.

Many people like my mother are availing of rehabilitative care but the health care ranges from continual care to rehabilitative, palliative and respite care for up to 95 residents. However, as is the case with many long-established public nursing homes, the physical environment needs improvement. Part of the Sacred Heart building dates from 1842 and has undergone modifications over the years to improve facilities but HIQA inspections have found that significant structural improvements are required to ensure compliance. From my regular visits, it is evident that the building is not designed and laid out to meet fully the needs of the residents. Most of the bedrooms are multi-occupancy and accommodate up to four beds in each room. No one can argue that this does not impact on the privacy and dignity of residents.

Thankfully, a specific plan is now in place to make provision for a new 50-bed unit on the site of the Sacred Heart Hospital. This will involve an extensive refurbishment of the building to provide residents' accommodation in en-suite, single and two-bed rooms along with a suitable communal space and sanitary facilities. As I stated at the outset, the funding was announced more than a year ago. We now need a commencement date for the works on the new Sacred Heart unit. I hope the Minister of State can give an indication of the timescale today.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I thank Senator Frank Feighan for raising this important issue. I know he is committed to developing services for senior citizens, health services and disability services in the Roscommon area.

Although it is Government policy to facilitate older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, there will always be a cohort of people who need long-term care. Quality residential care must continue to be available to those who need it. We are strongly in favour of choice with regard to services for senior citizens. Public residential care units are a significant and crucial part of our framework of services for older people. They provide more than 5,000 long-stay beds, amounting to approximately 20% of the total stock of nursing home beds nationally. The standard of care delivered to residents in these units is generally very high but we recognise and accept that many of our public units are housed in buildings that are less than ideal in the modern context.

The HSE is responsible for the delivery of health and personal social services, including those at facilities such as Sacred Heart Hospital in Roscommon. The hospital was registered with HIQA in 2015 for a period of three years with the maximum occupancy of 95 people. The beds provided by nursing homes such as Sacred Heart Hospital are an essential part of our health care infrastructure.The beds provided by nursing homes like the Sacred Heart home in Roscommon represent an essential part of our health care infrastructure. Without them, many older people would not have access to the care they need. Therefore, it is essential for them to be put on a sustainable footing and for the fabric of the buildings from which they operate to be modernised and improved.

The capital programme that was announced last year is one of the most comprehensive programmes of investment in public nursing home facilities ever undertaken by the State. It provides for the replacement and refurbishment of 90 public nursing homes across the country. Significant work was undertaken by the HSE to determine the most appropriate scheduling of projects over the five-year period from 2016 to 2021, within the phased provision of funding, to achieve compliance and registration with the Health Information and Quality Authority. Under this capital programme, it is proposed to deliver a new community nursing unit at the Sacred Heart home by 2021. This project will replace existing beds where the physical environment requires significant improvement. Like all health care infrastructure developments, this project requires a lead-in time to complete its various stages, including appraisal, project brief, design feasibility, review of costing estimates and finalisation of financing. This project is at the appraisal stage. The HSE expects that construction will begin in 2020 and will be completed and operational by 2021. The works, when completed, will ensure the hospital’s long and proud tradition will continue well into the future.

Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State again. I am delighted that the Government is fully committed to upgrading the Sacred Heart nursing home. The Minister of State has said that the "project is at the appraisal stage". He mentioned that the various stages before the construction stage include "appraisal, project brief, design feasibility [and] review of costing estimates". I have sat in on the three stages that have happened at the Sacred Heart's sister facility at Roscommon County Hospital. It has taken almost four years for the endoscopy building at the hospital, which is now providing excellent facilities in Roscommon, to get up and running. I sat in from the appraisal stage to the design stage. I thank the management and staff of the hospital. Along with doing their own significant work, they were able to make an input into the development of the endoscopy unit. As a result, the hospital now has significant accreditation as a working hospital. The input of hospital management and staff enabled them to determine the best possible result. I would like to think the knowledge and endeavours of the staff of the Sacred Heart home will be included in the appraisal stage because it is absolutely vital. I am delighted that this project is going ahead. I do not think people fully realise how much work goes on during the appraisal, project brief and design stages. It is a long and drawn-out process. It has to include all the stakeholders, including the staff, to ensure we get the best possible result. I thank the Minister of State again. I wish him well.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I thank Senator Feighan for his remarks. I know how committed he is to the protection of our senior citizens and the elderly, particularly in the Roscommon area. I take his point that the bureaucracy associated with the different stages can sometimes lead to delays. I will be responsible after this debate for passing on Senator's Feighan message that we need to ensure progress is made with these projects. It is important to provide for services to be made available to senior citizens who otherwise do not fit into options like home support and home care packages. There are other issues with the provision of services for our senior citizens. As I have said, approximately 5,000 people across the country fall into that category. It is essential for the senior citizens in the Roscommon area whom we are discussing to get services of the best quality. The quality services they deserve as a right include proper, modern and state-of-the-art beds, conditions and toilet facilities.Senior citizens worked for all their lives. The least we can do for them, towards the end of their years, is our best to support them. It is very important that we do. I also take the Senator's point about the staff in the Sacred Heart Home. I reassure him that every provision will be made and every avenue followed to ensure the staff and patients will receive the support and services they deserve. I will bring the points raised by him to the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris.

Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and the Senator.