Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Like the Minister, the Minister of State is all talk and public relations. The Minister for Health and Children informed the House she would make the elderly a priority. We have not seen evidence of that in the House during this debate. If the elderly are such a priority with her, why is she not present? This is the most serious issue the State has faced since its foundation because we will all be judged on how we look after our elderly. Whether the Minister of State likes it, he too will become elderly. He will want to be judged by the people coming behind him and will want them to look after him. If we cannot look after the people ahead of us, we are a sad people.

I raised this issue on many occasions. The Minister of State can check the Adjournment debate. I regularly asked in the House for an inspectorate for both public and private nursing homes. We had a daft situation. The State — the biggest culprit in this area — did not have its nursing homes inspected, while the health boards gave advance notice of when they would inspect the private nursing homes. The whole affair was a joke.

I compliment "Prime Time", but it is sad that we do not listen to Members of this House and do not take them seriously any longer. Today, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform announced the Morris tribunal report, but that should have been done in this House, not at a press conference. It is no wonder people in this country no longer vote. We have no respect for ourselves in the House nor any respect for the House. I know the EU constitution has nothing to do with nursing homes, but it is no wonder that the people of France and the Netherlands rejected that constitution and that the people of this country will do so as well. We are sick and tired of being dictated to from those abroad. We are sick and tired of being dictated to by officials elected by nobody and answerable to nobody, not even to the Minister any longer.

If the officials with responsibility for nursing homes were doing their jobs, we would not have the situation seen on "Prime Time". I compliment RTE on investigating the situation and doing a proper job. We have some great public and private nursing homes but we must deal with people who are in the business only to make money and who do not care how they look after our elderly.

The Minister of State and the Government should note that in 2001 we were promised inspectorates. We are now in 2005 and the Dáil is closing down next week. There is no need for that. Let us bring in the emergency legislation to deal with this matter next week. If that legislation is brought before the House, we will play our part.

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