Emergency Planning and Business Continuity in Irish Designated Centres: A HIQA Guide

This guide covers Ireland. For the UK equivalent, see our guide: Business Continuity and Emergency Planning for Care Homes.

In an Irish designated centre for older people, emergency planning is a legal requirement rather than an optional extra. The Health Act 2007 (Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 415 of 2013), as amended, require the registered provider to have a plan for responding to major incidents, to take fire precautions, and to run a risk management policy. This guide sets out what the Irish Statute Book text and HIQA's own publications say, then offers practical business continuity ideas that are clearly labelled as our suggestions. It is written for providers, persons in charge, HR leads and managers in Dublin and across Ireland, because the law is national.

Emergency planning is one strand of risk management, so it helps to read this alongside our guide to risk management and falls prevention in designated centres.

Where emergency planning sits in the Regulations

The 2013 Regulations were amended in 2025 by S.I. 98 of 2025, which came into operation on 31 March 2025. The table below summarises the provisions most relevant to emergencies, as set out on the Irish Statute Book pages for S.I. 415 of 2013 and S.I. 98 of 2025.

Regulation 26: risk management and the emergency plan

Regulation 26(1) requires the risk management policy to cover the identification of hazards and the assessment of risks throughout the centre, and the measures to control them. It names five specific risks: abuse, the unexplained absence of a resident, accidental injury to residents, visitors or staff, aggression and violence, and self-harm. Since 31 March 2025 it also names infectious diseases. The amended regulation also requires arrangements for identifying, recording and investigating serious incidents or adverse events, a process for implementing the actions and recommendations that arise, and a process for audit, review and learning from events.

Regulation 26(2) is the emergency plan provision. It requires the registered provider to ensure there is a plan in place for responding to major incidents likely to cause death or injury, serious disruption to essential services, or damage to property. The regulation does not spell out what the plan must contain. The regulation does not name alternative accommodation, loss of heating or water, or staffing shortfalls, so the detail is left to the provider to work out from its own risk assessment.

Regulation 28: fire precautions

Regulation 28 is more detailed. The registered provider must take adequate precautions against the risk of fire and provide suitable firefighting equipment, building services, bedding and furnishings. The regulation also requires:

• Means of escape: adequate means of escape, including emergency lighting.
• Maintenance and testing: adequate arrangements for maintaining fire equipment, means of escape, building fabric and building services, for reviewing fire precautions, and for testing fire equipment. No testing frequency is stated.
• Training: suitable fire training for staff covering fire prevention, emergency procedures including evacuation, building layout and escape routes, fire alarm call points, first aid, firefighting equipment, fire control techniques, and what to do if a resident's clothes catch fire.
• Drills: fire safety management and fire drills "at suitable intervals", so that people working in the centre and, as far as reasonably practicable, residents know the fire procedure. No fixed drill frequency is set.
• Systems: arrangements for detecting, containing and extinguishing fires, giving warnings, calling the fire service, and evacuating everyone, including the safe placement of residents.
• Display: the person in charge must ensure the fire procedures are displayed in a prominent place.

Regulation 28 was not among the provisions changed by the 2025 amendment, according to the list of amendments in S.I. 98 of 2025. For the physical side of fire safety, such as building services and maintenance, see our guide to premises and equipment in designated centres.

Written policies for emergencies

Regulation 4 requires the provider to prepare in writing, adopt and implement the policies listed in Schedule 5, and to make them available to staff. The Schedule 5 list includes risk management, responding to emergencies and fire safety management as separate items. Regulation 4(3) requires these policies to be reviewed as often as the Chief Inspector requires and in any event at intervals not exceeding three years, and updated where necessary in line with best practice.

What HIQA says

HIQA's National Standards for Residential Care Settings for Older People in Ireland (2016) add expectations that inspectors can refer to. Under Standard 3.2 on risk, feature 3.2.6 states that contingency plans are in place to deal with major incidents and emergencies. Standard 3.3, feature 3.3.7, says the service has a contingency plan for dealing with an outbreak. Feature 3.2.6 also refers to a register of designated persons to contact in the event of a major incident or emergency.

HIQA's Fire Safety Handbook for providers and staff of designated centres (version 1.2, March 2025) is the main fire guidance. HIQA first announced the handbook on a news page dated 26 January 2021. Points the handbook makes include:

• Compliance with building regulations or a fire safety certificate does not automatically satisfy Regulations 26 and 28.
• Each resident should have a personal emergency evacuation plan, covering matters such as the ability to hear the alarm, the ability to evacuate, the staff numbers and skills needed by day and night, and the evacuation method. The handbook notes that guidance from other jurisdictions suggests a secure, readily accessible "grab bag" of essential resident information to support continuity of care if relocation is needed.
• Drills should reflect "real-life scenarios" and be frequent enough that staff can evacuate residents safely on every shift. A case study in the handbook criticises drills that residents were always told about in advance and that did not reflect realistic scenarios, and notes that familiarity with several evacuation routes can reduce distress for residents.
• Providers should consider how many trained staff are needed to evacuate residents within the safe evacuation time.
• Families should be assured that there is a contingency plan for residents' continued care after an evacuation.

Telling HIQA about emergencies

Regulation 31 and Schedule 4 of the amended Regulations require the person in charge to notify the Chief Inspector of listed events. As set out in S.I. 98 of 2025, Schedule 4 lists events to be notified "within 2 days" (Regulation 31(1) refers to 2 working days), including any fire, any loss of power, heating or water, an unplanned evacuation where residents could not immediately return, and an outbreak of a notifiable disease. A fire alarm activation other than for a drill, practice or equipment testing is reported quarterly. Under Regulation 21, notification records must be kept for at least seven years, and fire drill, test and equipment records for at least four years.

Practical continuity planning (our suggestion)

The Regulations require an emergency plan and policies but leave the design to providers. Our suggestion: treat the following as a starting framework, and adapt it to your own risk assessment. None of this is a legal requirement.

• List your scenarios. Fire, flooding, loss of power, heating or water, loss of IT or records access, an infectious outbreak combined with staff absence, severe weather affecting travel, and an unplanned evacuation.
• Name decision-makers. Record who takes charge on each shift and out of hours, and keep an up-to-date emergency contact list, in line with the register of designated persons in Standard 3.2.6.
• Plan where residents would go. Think through temporary accommodation, transport and who accompanies each resident, and agree arrangements in advance with other services you might rely on.
• Protect essential information. Keep resident summaries, medicines information and contact details available even if the building or systems are not.
• Plan family and staff communication. Decide who contacts families, in what order, and how staff are called in.
• Link the plan to notification. Add the Regulation 31 notification step to every scenario so it is not forgotten under pressure.
• Test, then learn. Run a table-top exercise on a regular basis as well as fire drills, record what went wrong, and feed the actions into the incident review process required by Regulation 26(1).

Use your plan as evidence during inspections. Our HIQA inspection readiness checklist for Irish care homes is a useful companion for checking that records, policies and staff knowledge line up.

Learnsignal's offices are off Baggot Street in Dublin, and we offer in-person training from there. For current details, see our CPD pages.

Frequently asked questions

How often must fire drills be held in a designated centre?

Regulation 28(1)(e) says drills must be held "at suitable intervals" and sets no fixed number. HIQA's Fire Safety Handbook says they should be frequent enough that staff can evacuate residents safely on every shift.

Is a business continuity plan a legal requirement?

The Regulations require a plan for responding to major incidents (Regulation 26(2)) and written policies on risk management, responding to emergencies and fire safety management. A wider business continuity plan is best seen as good practice that supports those duties (our suggestion).

How often must the emergency policies be reviewed?

Regulation 4(3) requires review as often as the Chief Inspector requires, and in any event at intervals not exceeding three years. Updating sooner after a drill or an incident is sensible.

Did the 2025 amendments change the fire precautions?

The list of changes in S.I. 98 of 2025 does not include Regulation 28. It did change Regulation 26(1), Regulation 31 and Schedule 4, which affect incident learning and notifications.

What must be reported to HIQA after a power or water failure?

Schedule 4 of the amended Regulations lists any loss of power, heating or water as a notifiable event, to be reported to the Chief Inspector within 2 days (Regulation 31(1) refers to 2 working days; check HIQA's notification guidance for how this applies).

Emergency planning works best when it is practised, written down and reviewed after every drill and incident.