Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The HSE is already doing it.

It will be made up of teams of medical, nursing and environmental inspectors. As Deputy Kenny pointed out, there are inspections taking place in health board areas already. The strongest inspectorate, because it is a dedicated unit, is in the former Northern Health Board area, where the Leas Cross home is located. The inspectorate had been dealing with the home and thought it was making progress. It probably was making progress in many areas — I do not want to be critical of the staff who were acting in good faith. Inspectorate staff highlighted issues and asked that problems be rectified. Clearly they were not rectified and that was appalling, as I stated yesterday. Legislation to establish a proper inspectorate that will be independent of the HSE and deal with both nursing homes and children is being prepared. The legislation will not be ready before the summer but will be introduced in the autumn. That will not stop the work going on between now and the autumn.

I asked why nursing homes are given advance notice of inspections. In most cases, nursing homes are not given advance notice. However, advance notice is given of the first call to the institution. This is because inspectors wish to talk to the managers and owners of the home. They do not give advance notice because they just want to inspect the building. They want to inspect the insurance, fire certificate, the accounts and all of the other relevant issues. On subsequent visits——

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