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Independent TD for Laois Offaly Carol Nolan has said she will be calling on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to correct the record of the Dáil after he claimed that there was a net increase in the number of nursing home beds available in the country last year.
Deputy Nolan had raised the crisis impacting the sector with the Taoiseach during Leaders Question in the Dáil:
“The Taoiseach repeatedly claimed today that there was a net increase in the number of available nursing beds in the country last year. I am stating quite clearly that this is factually inaccurate. Indeed, HIQA’s annual report for 2022 states that overall, there was a net reduction in the number of registered beds of the order of 168 in 2022,” said Deputy Nolan.
“I also want to take serious issue with how the Taoiseach tried to import some kind of nefarious motivation into my raising of the issue when he suggested that everyone in the Dáil was “aware of the subtext” of my questions to him, specifically with respect to his own governments policy reversal on allowing nursing homes to be used as refugee accommodation.”
“This is an outrageous abuse of his position and a totally unwarranted attack; not just on me but more importantly on all those who have come to me regarding their concerns about the future viability of the entire private/voluntary nursing home sector.”
“There is, as Nursing Homes Ireland have pointed out, and as I pointed out today, an existential threat to our nursing home capacity. It would have been be far more appropriate and indeed respectful if the Taoiseach dealt with that instead of making snide remarks to me,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
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