Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

It it totally incorrect to say we did nothing. Communication has been ongoing with the Leas Cross nursing home for some time and while progress was made, it was not happening quickly enough. We took action and sent in a new management team to rectify matters in the home. Unfortunately, it was not possible to provide the necessary changes that would have ensured the patients received appropriate care in the proper environment. In view of that, we decided to take further action and the HSE released a statement yesterday confirming the action we took.

The system in place for inspecting nursing homes was not functioning properly and did not achieve the desired result. On foot of that, we decided to take further action and will bring forward legislation later this year to put an inspectorate in place, which will cover private and public nursing homes.

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