WHEN RTÉ CONTACTED me about a programme based on poor treatment of older people in two residential care facilities, I said ‘oh no, here we go again’.

I was disillusioned that 20 years after Leas Cross’ landmark Prime Time Investigates exposé, the lives of residents could be similarly impacted.

I remember Leas Cross in 2005. I remember Aras Attracta in 2014. I remember the anguish, both from politicians and society, that people’s lives could be trapped in a power dynamic of helplessness within poor residential care.

Again, the RTÉ follow-up presented the distress and desperation of families, with one speaking of their efforts to ensure the safety and quality of care for their father in one of the featured facilities, Beneavin Manor, Glasnevin.

Most worryingly, after the response “cavalry” of various statutory teams in the last week, the son of this resident, Paul Guy, spoke with continued considerable concern about the care of his father, Audeon.

Emerging from the embers of the Leas Cross scandal, the Health Information and Quality Authority was established in 2007. This was the political solution to standardising care within a framework of person-centred care and safety governance. Yet here we are once again with several points that still need learning.

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Firstly, HIQA’s inspections simply represent a point in time. Once they are completed and filed away, the context of care can change or revert to a normality that falls below the illusion of good care.

Yet, when a complaint is submitted to HIQA, the response time is unacceptable. While we were reassured by the Minister for Older People, Kieran O’ Donnell,........

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