It is a "positive thing" that complaints against nursing homes are rising and that people are not afraid to make them, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said.
Mr Varadkar was speaking following the publication by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) of a report analysing the regulation of nursing homes.
In 758 inspections in 2014, the authority found some 3,436 instances of non-compliance with regulations.
Some 58 per cent of the inspections at the 549 centres were unannounced and 42 per cent were announced. A total of 93 per cent of nursing homes were inspected.
Hiqa said that in 4,371 cases regulations and standards were met.
It asked the providers to take corrective action to address non-compliance in 5,864 cases.
Six centres that had been on the register in December 2013 had closed by December 2014. These centres were all privately operated.
Speaking as he opened the new National Ambulance Service headquarters in Tallaght, Dublin, Mr Varadkar noted the ombudsman had not long ago commented complaints about nursing homes were very low compared to other countries.