Mary Bartley Meehan lost her son and husband to Covid-19 in Kilbrew Nursing Home within just 6 weeks of each other.
She met Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín ahead of a debate on the Health Bill that will give the Chief Inspector of Nursing Home new powers on compliance and enforcement.
Speaking earlier, the Meath West TD said:
“Mary’s son, Ultan had dementia and carcinoma cancer, which resulted in tumorous wounds on his face and head and had been resident in Kilbrew since February 2019.
“Mary was shown a video of her husband before he died. The side of Ultan’s face was discoloured with black congealed blood. His nails were long and had become black as he had, unknown to himself, been picking at his facial tumours. As a result, this wound became infected.
“Shockingly his face had become infested with maggots. This is just one of the many horrors that happened to Ultan and his son. Months after this has happened to Adrian, Ultan and Mary the Minister for Health, the Department of Health, the HSE and HIQA have all refused to investigate what happened.
“4 years later practically every second night Mary Bartley Meehan has nightmares dreams of infestation. 4 years later there has been no investigation.
“She said to me today, I hope I don’t die before they say sorry.
“The question I have for the Minister is, in future under this Health Bill will HIQA have the remit to investigate individual cases such as this?
“I asked the Ombudsman would they investigate what had happen to Mary’s husband. The Ombudsman stated that he can’t as he has no ability to investigate issues such as this. This is incredible. No one in Ireland has the authority or the oversight to investigate into what happened to Ultan.
“It is absolutely astounding that the government will not do the right thing for Mary and her family and investigate this. But the government have form. They have refused to date to investigate the shocking number of deaths that happened in the Nursing Home Sector during the Covid Crisis.
“2,323 or over 27% of all deaths during Covid were in nursing homes.
“In Galway a Nursing Home saw all but two of its staff test positive for Covid-19 during an outbreak where five residents died. I remember the manager of that centre crying in the media about how the two staff had been left for nearly two days operating the home by themselves. They were told by the HSE that no agency staff were available.
“The Government has proposed its own look back and analysis on this situation. But it does not do it in the form of a commission of investigation. The Government has also excluded many of the key decision makers from being looked back on in this investigation. The Chief Medical Officer, for example, and the head of the HSE are not to be included in the Government’s look back.
“I attended a meeting with the former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Government buildings several months ago. What Leo proposed was a toothless review with no powers to compel people or papers to provide evidence. Shockingly every party at that meeting, all of the opposition parties supported this. It was only when Aontú demanded that there must be powers to compel people and papers that the other parties woke up.
“I believe that this government will never allow a full public investigation into what happened during Covid. I believe that the government want to cover up their decisions that were taken in nursing homes and other elements in society during covid.
“Aontú will not allow this to happen. There must be justice for Mary Bartley Meehan and every other family that have been destroyed by the wrongs done during Covid.
“I believe this is a really serious issue and everybody who makes decisions must be investigated and their decisions understood. The families of those who died in nursing homes deserve answers. They deserve complete transparency. They are not getting it at the moment.
“Aontú will continue to demand a full, frank and transparent Covid inquiry that will get justice for families such as Mary’s.”