Richard O'Donoghue: Urges cap on large nursing homes after RTE report
Richard O'Donoghue responded to an RTE Investigates report by raising concerns about the scale and ownership of nursing homes and urging limits on large institutional settings. He argued that care standards should prioritise residents' wellbeing and proposed bed caps, community-based settings and public ratings.
Local experience and RTE report
Richard O'Donoghue said the RTE Investigates report made him "sick in your stomach" and described visits to nursing homes around Limerick. He highlighted community events and vintage activities used to recreate life for residents and contrasted the experience in smaller homes with that in larger facilities.
Concerns about ownership and scale
He asked whether companies buying nursing homes are prioritising how many residents they can "get in" rather than patient care, calling it "a money trail rather than a care trail". He warned that larger, more industrialised homes risk becoming institutionalised, while smaller community nursing homes of 25-50 beds appeared happier and more personable.
Standards enforcement and the Hicwa example
He recounted an instance where a provider imposed a Hicwa standard that required moving a wall four inches, costing 20,000 euros, despite the resident saying they were happy in the room. He argued that regulatory checks should focus on the standard of care and residents' wellbeing rather than rigidly applying a checklist from a book.
Policy proposals and public ratings
He proposed capping facilities at no more than 25 beds or requiring separate settings or floors for larger numbers to preserve community and care quality. He also called for a system to rate and promote nursing homes that provide excellent care and to expose and weed out poor providers.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Minister, after seeing the report by RTE Investigates, it makes you sick in your stomach to see that that could happen. And I look at the nursing homes around Limerick and other nursing homes I've visited, and through social events that we do, through our vintage and everything, to re-create life of people that are in the nursing homes, and bring in some of the older stuff into them, and see what the nursing homes do. The question I have for you is, I've been at a lot of nursing homes and we've done this. None of the bigger nursing homes, 100 beds, don't do this. The community nursing homes, the smaller ones are 25, 30, 35, 40, up to 50 beds, have done this. What is that telling you? Are we going into a case now where companies have bought out nursing homes, they're just saying how many can we get in, how many can we look after, and it's a money trail rather than a care trail. I've been in a nursing home which gives excellent care, but it was an older nursing home. And Hicwa came in, and they said that one of the bedrooms was four inches too small for Hicwa standard. The person that was in the nursing home said, it's perfect, I love it, I'm happy here. So they had to remove the elderly person that was in that room, spend 20,000 euros to move a wall four inches, because Hicwa standard. Rather than going in and say, is this acceptable to you? Are you happy here? Are they doing everything in their power to protect you? Are they looking after you and all your care? They didn't ask that. They looked at a book. Oh, it doesn't meet standards. The standard is the care of the patient. The standard is the smile on their face when they see you coming in and say, you're welcome. But if we're going into nursing homes that have gone into industrial, push them in, pack as many as we can get in, and we'll have the limited amount of staff, we'll give them the minimum amount of community spirit in the place. Too many people proves in one nursing home in one setting, it becomes institutionalised. Smaller settings, which are smaller nursing homes, they seem to be happier. So why don't we put a cap that you can't have any more than 25, if you do, you need to have a separate setting. Even a separate floor, whatever you have to do, that's your community. You build your community around the people that you have in there, you build the care, and instead of RTD investing at going in, let's actually see, does it actually work, and see have we got people that are actually happy in the settings that they're in, and see can we rate a lot of the nursing homes that are providing the excellent care that they can, and rate them on that, and promote the good ones, and weed out the bad ones. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
