Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I thank Deputy Sherlock for sharing time with me. I have listened to him consistently raise this issue for the past 15 years. The unfortunate thing is that he was not listened to.

I have never heard a speech as passionless as that of the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power. He clearly did not believe what he said. He just rattled off a departmental script. At this stage, instead of hanging their heads in shame and admitting they were wrong, Government speakers have come in to spin the usual lies. The level of investment in the health service has been trotted out while reference has been made to how many nursing home places there are for the elderly without once dealing with the kernel of the problem, that there are not enough places for the number of elderly in need of full-time care and attention. That is the difficulty.

As Deputy Sherlock stated, today's Supreme Court decision — thank God for it — only deals with a small portion of those who have been forced to die as paupers as a result of the State's inaction. In one case, a geriatrician employed by a health board who was a prominent adviser to the previous Minister for Health and Children advised that a female patient was in need of full-time care and attention but as no space was available, she had to go to a private nursing home for a few years at a cost of between €500 and €700 per week. Her house was sold, as a result of which her family were impoverished, yet the State insists that the only people for whom it has responsibility retrospectively in regard to money, according to the Supreme Court, are those cared for in State nursing homes.

The Government has a responsibility to those who needed full-time care and attention, to whom the State refused to supply public places and who, accordingly, had to go to private nursing homes when the burden was financially greater. In spite of this, we have to listen to the old spin — how much the Government is investing in the health service and how many nursing home places were provided. The Government should take a look at Cork city and county where there are very few public places available but a booming private sector nursing home industry, of which 99% are doing an excellent job which the State should be doing. We should look at this aspect of the problem.

Deputy Sherlock, the Ombudsman and a plethora of others had told the Government that what it was doing was wrong. It is similar to institutional abuse with children; everyone appeared to know it in hindsight but nobody did anything about it. The next big investigation will be into how we treated the elderly.

This is just another one of the land mines the former Minister, Deputy Martin, left behind. If I were the Minister, I would tread very carefully because he has left an entire Department full of them. He did nothing but publish reports. He did absolutely nothing else. This is the consequence of one of them. He knew it better than anyone else.

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