Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I support the comments of Senator Regan, Senator Ross and others about the reversal or partial reversal of the pay cut to be endured by higher remunerated public servants. I am struck by a different element of this issue, which is the question of access to power. It appears to be very easy for people at a certain level of society to secure consideration of their needs. Not for them letters to Members of the Oireachtas, letters to newspapers or the necessity to mount a lobbying campaign. Instead, it is perhaps a word in the Minister's ear. That type of thing, or even a perception of it, will sap public confidence at a time when, let us face it, much more deserving people are being asked to make sacrifices without any reversal of what is proposed. This is a matter of concern.

Yesterday, Senator Bradford and others raised the issue of nursing homes, the mistreatment of people in residential homes for people with disabilities and the lack of transparency surrounding investigations of abuses. Today, we learn of the publication of a report on the contract between St. James's Hospital and a private nursing home in Maynooth, County Kildare. A large number of people were admitted to the nursing home within a very short time, in circumstances where the nursing home was incapable of coping. It happened two weeks after the report on Leas Cross was published. Something very similar had happened in Leas Cross, where a large number of patients, perhaps in more extreme circumstances, had been admitted from St. Ita's Hospital in Portrane. Again, I ask the Leader to commit to holding a debate on the care of older people and people who are vulnerable. There is a responsibility not just on nursing homes but also on hospitals who would make arrangements to put people into nursing homes in circumstances where the homes might be unable to cope and people may suffer as a result.