Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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633. To ask the Minister for Health if national Health Information Quality Authority standards for residential care in the area of disability services will be implemented this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18810/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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This Government is committed to ensuring that vulnerable people with disabilities in residential services are safeguarded and protected, and that their quality of life is enhanced.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has prepared and published standards for this sector, which outline what is expected of a provider of services and what a person with a disability, his or her family, and the public can expect to receive from residential care services. The current Programme for Government includes a specific commitment to put these standards on a statutory footing and ensure that the services are inspected by HIQA. The standards have been submitted to my Department for approval and I expect that they will be formally approved shortly with a likely publication and launch of the standards next month.

Work is also underway in the Department on both the ‘Registration and Inspection’ regulations and the ‘Care and Welfare’ regulations required to bring the standards into law. These are being developed taking into account the lessons learned with the introduction three years ago of similar regulations for nursing homes.

It is expected that the new regulatory regime should be up and running by quarter three this year. This timescale, however, is subject to final agreement on the staffing and resources required in addition to the necessity to recruit and train the inspectorate staff in time for the commencement of the regulatory regime. Every effort is being made to ensure that the required staff are in place to commence registration and inspection of this sector later this year.

It is also important to point out that while the HIQA standards have yet to be put on a statutory footing, it is worth noting that compliance with these standards is already included in the Service Level Arrangements between the HSE and service providers in the disability sector.