The Health Information and Quality Authority has said that measures need to be taken to ensure that people being cared for at home are receiving safe and high-quality care.
HIQA Chief Executive Phelim Quinn told the Oireachtas Future of Healthcare Committee that at-risk adults must be protected from abuse and neglect.
He said that the development of a ten-year plan for health offered the opportunity to introduce statutory measures to protect the health, human rights and well-being of individuals.
Mr Quinn said that while HIQA has statutory powers of enforcement and prosecution, other health authorities do not, to protect vulnerable adults from abuse.
The Government recently announced a public consultation process on establishing a new statutory homecare scheme.
Mr Quinn said that Ireland needed an effective commissioning body, responsible for purchasing health and social care services from providers.
He said the system is well established in Northern Ireland and England.
Commissioning arrangements explicitly define and separate the roles of purchaser and provider of services; both these functions are usually currently performed by the Health Service Executive.
Mr Quinn told the committee that Ireland needed to move away from the current hospital-centric model of care and towards primary and community care.
He said that Ireland has a system characterised by rationing by delay, crudely manifested in the form of waiting lists.
He said that Health Technology Assessments are evidence-based research, widely used internationally to assess the costs and benefits of healthcare treatments, including drugs, medical devices and public health programmes such as cancer screening.
Mr Quinn said that the aim of HTA is to guarantee that best use is made of resources, through rationing by design.
