The Minister of State for Older People and Housing said the law will be changed to hold parent companies of nursing homes accountable by inspectors.This follows Health Information and Quality Authority’s (Hiqa) publication of the independent Forvis Mazars review, which was initiated by Minister Kieran O’Donnell, publishing 54 inspection reports into 23 nursing homes run by Emeis Ireland on Thursday.The Emeis Ireland group, one of the biggest private nursing home providers in the State, was at the centre of controversy last year when an RTÉ Investigates programme highlighted allegations of elder abuse and neglect at two of its centres – The Residence in Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in Dublin.In a statement issued on Thursday, O’Donnell said “the issues highlighted by RTÉ Investigates were taken extremely seriously by Government and the Department of Health”.The two centres that were the subject of the RTÉ Investigates television programme were among the Emeis Ireland centres that required increased regulatory action. However, the reports were not published due to ongoing legal proceedings relating to the access of the video footage relating to the programme.O’Donnell said he welcomes and accepts the review’s recommendations, as does Hiqa.“We will now do, I suppose, an intense body of work to come up with an implementation plan to address a number of issues that the Forvis Mazars report has recommended,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.[ Dublin nursing home residents heard ‘shouting for help’ due to low staff levelsOpens in new window ]He said, as well as ensuring Hiqa can inspect parent companies, some other measures put forward in the report are “in terms of” the voice of residents, the culture, staffing and notifications.He said a “detailed implementation plan” will be in place within the next three months.When asked if the legislation to allow parent companies to be regulated will follow this year, O’Donnell said, “first of all, we’ve just received the report, we want to go through it in great depth, then we want to do an implementation plan.”He also wants a “structured approach” to deal with a range of recommendations made in the Forvis Mazars report. “Our key focus now is to work with everyone, including Hiqa, to bring about an implementation plan that we can deal with all the recommendations in the Forvis Mazars independent report.”The “key focus” has to be the older person residing in the nursing home as behind all of these inspections are individuals and families, he said.On Thursday, The Irish Times reported, following the publication of the review, that according to the inspection reports, a number of the centres were operating to a good standard and providing safe and effective care. However, seven centres were found to have “significant challenges in delivering safe and effective care”.[ Holding nursing-home owners accountable ‘legally challenging’ due to corporate ownershipOpens in new window ]