Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children announced some time ago that both the 1990 legislation and the 1993 regulations were being reviewed. They are being reviewed as part of the process that leads to this legislation, as I answered yesterday. Obviously, the reason they are being reviewed is they are not considered adequate.

The HSE is only in existence since 1 January but prior to that time there were ten inspectorate teams. They did not have conformity or a unified system. Since 1 January the HSE has been unifying the systems, trying to have a more robust organisation that will conduct far more vigorous inspections than at present. Under the current system, certainly since the 1990 Act and the 1993 regulations, they try to work with the management of the various institutions to bring them up to the standards they demand. I understand the Northern Area Health Board had problems, complaints and issues with the management and staff of Leas Cross. It believed it was making progress in getting these rectified. Staff now believe they were duped. That is their position and that is what they have said to me. They believe that what they were told on these issues was not being followed through and the systematic abuses we saw the other night were issues that they did not think happened. The reason for this is that they were not their 24 hours a day. The staffing levels were not what they thought. The standards were not what they thought. At times, obviously they were adequate but at other times they were wholly inadequate. That means we need a far more robust organisation with more detailed inspections. That will obviously mean, in time, more staff. It will mean a new inspectorate that will be probably far more vigilant than has been the case in the past. That is a fact.

In answer to Deputy Rabbitte, I am not tooing and froing. I have answered twice already that the legislation will be published in the autumn.

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