Call to review reports of abuse

A health watchdog has been urged to conduct a retrospective review of all complaints sent to it about alleged abuse at care homes after concerns they were not acted on due to a misunderstanding with another public protection body.

The Disability Federation of Ireland said the move is needed after the Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) and the ombudsman gave contradictory views of how they should interact when complaints are made.

Hiqa is tasked with examining and regulating services, while the ombudsman is obliged to investigate individual complaints. In recent days, Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd has alleged that as many as 160 complaints were made to Hiqa in the past year but were not investigated because they fell outside the body’s remit, a situation the watchdog denies.