This Government has significantly neglected older people for many years. We saw during the Covid crisis the number of older people who were moved out of hospitals and into nursing homes were in their thousands. It happened all of a sudden. It happened on the direction of the HSE and it had the effect of bringing older people from hospitals, without testing them properly for Covid, and placing them into nursing homes. It seeded Covid in nursing homes throughout the country. It led to hundreds of deaths, no doubt. I have a letter from the National Treatment Purchase Fund which proves this was a policy of the HSE at the time. It was a shocking, horrendous action. We also know that when the nursing homes tried to close first, the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, said they could not and had to reopen and allow people in and out of the nursing homes, again seeding Covid in those nursing homes. When people were dying in those nursing homes on their own, the Government had a policy of not letting their families in to be with them when they died. Hundreds of people died on their own in solitary confinement in this country during that time. It was an incredible injustice to them. Even when those people died, their families were often prevented from even attending their funerals. Supplies of oxygen for nursing homes were actually taken, intercepted by the HSE, and stopped going into the nursing homes. Testing was inadequate. In the end, about 2,300 people died in those nursing homes. Of all the deaths that happened during Covid, 27% happened in nursing homes. The nursing homes were the ground zero of the Covid crisis and the most exposed place during the Covid crisis. One of the real angers people throughout the country have at the moment is that most Governments internationally have had fully public inquiries with the powers to compel people and papers. This Government did not do that. It resisted it. All it is having instead is a review, one where there is not the power to compel people and papers. It is not being held in public. I have no confidence in that review. I believe it is likely to be a whitewash. I believe this Government does not want to have an investigation into its own actions during Covid, and that is a big problem. I will just give one example. There is a constituent in my county called Mary Bartley Meehan. Mary had a husband and a son in a nursing home at the time. Unfortunately, her husband, Ultan Meehan, had cancer in the face and wounds in the face. So badly was he treated that when Mary went in to see her husband, there were maggots in the wound of Ultan's face. It was a shocking situation. It is an absolute disgrace that Ultan died and Mary has never received justice for the treatment or death of Ultan. Why? It is because HIQA does not have the right to regulate and oversee the clinical decisions in nursing homes. If the Minister is seeking to really update the legislation in terms of protecting older people, can I urge the Minister to give somebody the opportunity to regulate and oversee the clinical decisions made in nursing homes? The ombudsman for older people has cried out and urged the Government to do this. It is a necessity to do this. I think it is really important. Turning to another issue in terms of older people, I got an answer to a parliamentary question recently that showed 100 patients in the country still occupying beds two months after they had been clinically discharged. Two months after the doctors said they could do no more for people in hospitals and they should be somewhere else, either at home, in a rehabilitation centre or some step-down facility, 100 patients are still occupying those beds. That is not on. We found out, shockingly, that 12 of these individuals have been stuck in hospital for more than nine months. Actually, two people have been clinically discharged for more than two years and are stuck in a hospital for the want of a step-down facility, a nursing home or home care. In terms of home care, so many of the people who do home care in this country do the most wonderful work. It is actually incredibly hard work. If anyone has cared, they will know it is really hard, intense and difficult work but it is fiercely rewarding as well. In this country, though, we do not match really important work with income. Those who mind our children, our older people and children in State care are among the lowest paid in the country. We will give plaudits and patronising conversations here all day long but we will not pay the same people who are looking after our mothers and fathers and that is quite something. If you want to know what the Government values, watch where the money goes. I will say that there is a significant problem, which has been mentioned before, with the lack of home care hours. That has the effect of forcing older people into nursing homes, which usually shortens their lives somewhat. It is also more expensive for the family and the State. Another major problem, because of the lack of the proper resourcing of this, is that so many nursing home hours fall. There are old people around this country today who expected to have a carer in at 5 p.m. to help them with their dinner or to help them to get ready for the evening. Those carers did not show up. Those nursing home companies did not provide them. No shows are happening at a rate right across the country and this is having a significant impact. There is a lot that can be done but I do not believe the Government means business in terms of older people in this country.

Sentiment score: -0.14