John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is putting it mildly. What happened here is a complete failure of policy and a disregard for the care of older people. There are significant lessons to be learned from this, but the fact is that there is conflict, in the context of some of the issues raised, between Mr. Daly and the Department of Health, NPHET and so on. That conflict needs to be resolved. As policymakers, we need to be clear about where the failures occurred and also about the evidence Mr. Daly has for some of his statements. I would want to be clear on the direction nursing homes will take for the future because it is, without doubt, a shame on all of us that this happened and that there was not the type of response that there should have been from those who were central to delivering such a response in respect of the queries that were made. Mr. Daly is the one who is highlighting all of this and saying it.