A total of 21 private nursing homes across the State received adverse reports when inspected last year, new figures show.
The figures, provided by the Health Service Executive, also show that 69 out of a total of 443 registered nursing homes were inspected only once last year, when by law all nursing homes should be inspected twice a year.
The figures, which were released to Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd in reply to a Dáil question, show the adverse reports related to seven homes in Roscommon; two each in Meath, Limerick, Dublin, Waterford, South Tipperary and Carlow/Kilkenny; and one each in Louth and North Tipperary.
The figures also show two nursing homes were refused registration in 2005.
Meanwhile, in reply to a separate Dáil question, Mr O'Dowd has been informed that an independent report into deaths at the Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin is now complete. It was carried out by the consultant geriatrician Prof Des O'Neill and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Seán Power, said Prof O'Neill "recently submitted his final report" to the HSE and it had been sent to the executive's legal advisers.
"The report prepared by Prof O'Neill is one of a number of reports commissioned/prepared by the HSE into Leas Cross. All of the reports are now being collated and it is expected that these will be submitted as a complete file on Leas Cross to the national director of the Primary, Community and Continuing Care Directorate in the near future," Mr Power said.
Mr O'Dowd said the report by Prof O'Neill should be published on its own. He was concerned the HSE was now "emasculating" it into another report, he said.
It is understood the report has made a host of recommendations for health service management aimed at avoiding further similar nursing home controversies. It has also have made recommendations for An Bord Altranais, the nursing board.
Leas Cross closed last year after the HSE withdrew public patients from it, shortly after conditions in it were highlighted on a Prime Time programme.
Meanwhile, Minister for Health Mary Harney was criticised by the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation (INHO) yesterday for failing to establish an independent inspectorate for all nursing homes, a year after conditions in Leas Cross were exposed.
Tadhg Daly, chief executive of the INHO, said the Dáil was told last year an independent inspectorate would be established before the end of 2005.
Ms Harney told reporters in Dublin she hoped legislation governing new national standards for all nursing homes would be in place this time next year. "To set new national standards we need legislation . . . It does take time to draft comprehensive legislation." She said the heads of a new Bill providing for an inspectorate of public and private nursing homes had recently been published.
She was speaking following the launch of a set of standards for nursing homes drawn up in association with Excellence Ireland Quality Association (EIQA).
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey criticised them as a private set of standards. Ms Harney said she found this response extraordinary as EIQA worked with many companies and sectors to raise standards.
Dr Twomey claimed a set of standards drawn up by the Government-established Irish Health Services Accreditation Board had been gathering dust since last November.