Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan says she wants to see “each and every person found guilty of abusing elderly and vulnerable nursing home residents arrested and their ability to ever work in such settings removed for life.”
Deputy Nolan made her remarks as the Dáil heard statements on Nursing Homes and Care for Older Persons this week, commenting on recent revelations regarding the treatment of older people in nursing homes, and the urgent need to provide families with assistance so that they can care for their loved ones at home.
The Independent TD said that to call what we have seen revealed by RTE in some of our nursing homes ‘a betrayal’ is an understatement; “it is brutality, plain and simple,” she said:
“While we all accept that you can never definitively eradicate the scope for a minority of ruthless people to end up working in care settings of any description, that does not mean that we cannot legislate for the hammer of the law to come on those people who are subsequently found to be despicably abusive toward our elderly,” she said.
“What we have seen recently on our screens is the vicious erosion of trust that is sickening to the core.”
“It is my hope each and every person who is found to have violently or psychologically abused our elderly is arrested. I also want to see their ability to ever work in such settings removed for life. People who abuse our elderly are, in my view, nothing short of animals engaged in the brutalisation of our loved ones. No regulatory or disciplinary mercy must be shown to them. No excuses about regulatory failures or reporting must be offered.”
“They are a stain on the good name of genuine nursing home staff and all of those nursing homes who cherish their residents. The signal must go out, that if you mistreat or assault our elderly you will be jailed.”
“If you violate their dignity, you will answer for it before the courts and not just some professional standards tribunal.”
“People are sick and tired of these kinds of action. They want binding guarantees that the excuses and the tolerance for this wretched behaviour is at end.”
“By all means let us get on with the work of reforming our safeguarding laws to ensure that we address these scenarios as best we can, but in the meantime the full force of the existing criminal law should be utilised to the fullest extent possible when dealing with that minority of staff who treat our elderly like pieces of dirt,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
Kerry TD, Michael Cahill, told the Dáil that “since the airing of the “RTÉ Investigates” programme on national television, families feel terrified. They do not know what way to turn”.
“My constituency office in Killarney, County Kerry, is inundated with queries about home care. Those queries are asking what is available to families to look after their loved ones at home. Many of these would be under extreme pressure to be able to cope at home but they are turning away from private nursing homes following the recent scandal. There is no doubt about that.”
“Regarding sanctions, penalties, suspensions, termination of contract, what has happened in that area? As the Minister of State will know, I raised the issue of the company involved coming before the Joint Committee on Health, that I am a member of. The company should be brought in. There is no doubt about that. At the end of the day, it is ultimately responsible for what has happened in both of those homes.”
“Both homes were in receipt of millions of euro of taxpayers’ moneys. There should be accountability here. The idea of our elderly people being afraid of going into long-term care is frightening. It is a sad day and a sad reflection on our society in this day and age in 2025. The sad thing about it is that all other nursing homes are being tarnished because of this. There has to be accountability,” he said.
Micheál Carrigy, TD for Longford Westmeath, said that while all were “shocked by the recent “RTÉ Investigates” programme” it was “important to put on record that this is not the case for the entire nursing home sector.”
“Across the country, many nursing homes provide excellent service to our family members. We need to increase the support that we put into both public and private nursing homes,” he said.
Deputy John McGuinness said that similar revelations had been made before, and that while “disgust and anger” had been expressed, “we have not done anything in between times to make sure it does not happen again”.
“There is a lot that we could have done. For example, the community nursing homes are a great idea, as outlined by Deputy O’Donoghue earlier. We have them in Kilkenny at Thomastown, Castlecomer, Kilmoganny, Graiguenamanagh, Freshford and Callan. Why do we not fund them? Why do we not give them the money to have a proper community facility to look after the elderly in our communities? I have travelled to those different homes and I have to say I have always been impressed by the business model and by the level of care that those in the homes receive. Yet, we totally ignore that and we make them fight for every shilling or euro that they get,” the Kilkenny TD said.
“Big business seems to be the favoured way of delivering nursing homes. It is not a good way because it is driven by profit where the profit is euro, whereas in the community setting, it is not euro but it is seeing the smile on the resident’s face. That is what it is. It is about choice. The Government can have its big business model and it can also have a well-funded option in terms of community care. I urge the Minister to tip the balance in favour of community care.”
In response, Minister of State at the Department of Health, Kieran O’Donnell, said that he had engagement with HIQA and the HSE in terms of their safeguarding teams, following the RTÉ programme.
“They have been into both nursing homes and they will engage with all nursing homes throughout the group. They have put directors of nursing into both nursing homes. Ultimately, out of this absolutely terrible situation for people in both these nursing homes, the Residence in Port Laoise and Beneavin Manor, we want to get a better system in terms of the regulation of nursing homes to ensure that all older people, wherever they are in a nursing home, get a standard of care they deserve. It is something that in my role as Minister of State with responsibility for older people, along with the Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, we are determined to achieve, with Members’ help.”