HIQA to be called before the Public Accounts Committee over nursing home inspections
The decision to invite the quality authority comes after an RTÉ Investigates undercover exposé showing neglect of residents in two nursing homes, including Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin, which the watchdog had previously assessed.
At a meeting of PAC on Thursday, the committee members agreed that the watchdog would be invited before the committee.
'I think it's been eight years since [HIQA] came before the Public Accounts Committee, and I think it's about time to do again. I think it's a failure of the state, really, that our older people are being treated in this way when they should be given the dignity and respect they deserve as they age,' Labour TD Eoghan Kenny said.
'If a person across the country had an older person, a member of their family in a nursing home, I think they would have been really struck by the fact that inspectors from HIQA actually came to a number of those nursing homes and found no fault and I think that has to be questioned,' he added.
Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe, whose constituency area includes Beneavin Manor, said he had received a number of calls from the public who were concerned for the people and relatives in the nursing home after seeing the programme.
'I think we can say, very easily, it's a neglect in basic care and there has to be accountability. Individual accountability for staff, there has to be accountability within the company, the corporate entity, and I think we shouldn't allow any investigation we carry out to absolve those people of what happened,' Mr McAuliffe said.
Mr McAuliffe said while HIQA's examination of nursing homes must be questioned, the Nursing Home Support Scheme must also be scrutinised.
'I think the funding of the Nursing Home Support Scheme, which is the 'Fair Deal' scheme, I think has to also be examined, because my understanding is far in excess of €6 million was paid into the Beneavin campus, and that's a significant amount of money,' Mr McAuliffe said.
'And if you don't have basic material, if you don't have basic hygiene products to hand, I have to ask myself a question, is that a matter for HIQA, or is that a matter for the company, who are actually running the organisation?' he added.
A gap in the committee's schedule in July was the proposed date put forward by Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly, and the committee agreed to invite HIQA to attend.
The RTÉ Investigates programme showed a litany of care failings.
They included the inappropriate handling of some residents of the nursing home, lack of supply for basic supplies and a chronic level of staff shortages.
While Emeis Ireland, the company that runs Beneavin Manor, issued an apology to residents and their family members, HIQA is now reviewing all nursing homes run by the company.
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