Ireland 'failed as a nation' to protect elderly, Dáil hears

TDs passed a motion calling for a national inquiry into nursing home deaths during the pandemic

David Cullinane said residents died because advice on safeguarding was ignored.

Ireland failed to protect its elderly and the fact that so many died during the pandemic is a damning indictment on our health service, deputies told the Dáil.

Sinn Féin’s Pauline Tully also said the lack of visitation rights of the loved ones who died led to, in some homes, abuse going undetected.

She was speaking at her colleague David Cullinane’s private members’ motion calling for a national inquiry into nursing homes deaths during the pandemic. That motion was carried.

“The stark truth is that we have failed as a nation to protect the most vulnerable people in our society,” she said.

“The residents of nursing homes, who amongst them, account for over 40% of all Covid related deaths.

The fact that over 2,000 people in nursing homes contract the virus and die as a result is a damning indictment on the health service of this country.

Of the 23 who died in Co Louth’s Dealgan House, Labour’s Ged Nash reminded the house: “Each and every resident who died there was a mom, a dad, a grandparent, much-loved aunt, and an uncle, a friend.”

Cork North Central Socialist Party TD Mick Barry, who has previously championed concerns about Ballynoe Nursing Home in Upper Glanmire, also spoke.

And in particular, he referenced an Irish Examiner article in which Minister of State for Older Persons Mary Butler said she would refer certain abuse allegations to gardaí.

Given that potential abuse and neglect in HSE nursing homes is already automatically referred to gardai, he asked her if she intends to change the law so that this is automatically the case in private nursing homes.

Mr Cullinane said residents died because advice on safeguarding was ignored.

Opening the debate on his motion for a national inquiry into deaths, Mr Cullinane said the pandemic exposed “major and fatal flaws in our health and social care system”.

And he told the Dáil the country has to acknowledge what happened and the first start of this was to hold a national inquiry.

“The pandemic restrictions, combined with poor oversight of the nursing home sector, has been a perfect storm, which led to neglect and abuse,” he said.

“There's more than enough evidence to suggest the State did not have sufficient knowledge of the sector.

The pandemic exposed major and fatal flaws in our health and social care system, which should have been known.

And of the need for an inquiry, he said: “The starting point here has to be that we establish the truth, and the facts, which is why this motion is calling for a public inquiry.”

He is calling on the government to begin a full public inquiry into the deaths of residents and quality of care in nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, and systemic failures in the sector.

Earlier, Ms Butler told the Irish Examiner she is planning to report any “potentially criminal” allegations about abuse and neglect in nursing homes to gardaí.