Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

It is. I will focus on what the Minister said. He said he is developing a set of standards through the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board. I have been made aware that those standards, as put together by the IHSAB, were received by the Minister last November and that all they require is for the Minister to sign off on them rather than to discuss them in July. I am surprised to read that the Minister says they will be ready in July followed by a three-month consultation process with interested parties to give their views. I am told these draft standards have been in the Department since last November. The Minister seems to be postponing again the recommendations by a group, the IHSAB, which was established by the Tánaiste to put forward a set of recommendations on standards of care in public institutions where elderly people are being looked after. In light of the Leas Cross scandal and other scandals raised in pubic and private nursing homes, one would think the Minister for Health and Children would publish these recommendations as soon as they fell on her desk and not tell us this process will not start until July, six months later. I would like to give way to Deputy Seán Power, the Minister of State responsible for this. Does he have those recommendations on his desk and has he had them since last November, or do I have the wrong information?

See this speech in context