Mr. Bernard Gloster:

There is not only a huge cost because, apart from that, there is dreadful distress and upset for families. Many years ago when I was a manager down the country, I took over a nursing home late one evening. The impact of uncertainty on the residents to be displaced and on their families is dreadful. Equally, however, it is not the case that the State can simply buy, take over and run every nursing home that fails. That creates a perverse incentive, among other things. I have asked Nursing Homes Ireland, which has many good members, to try to ensure that when people are entering the market or taking over nursing homes, they do so with their eyes open and realise they have a commitment beyond what is just the commercial interest.