Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I very much welcome the Tánaiste's reply to this question and an earlier Priority Question in regard to the publication of nursing home reports in July. The Information Commissioner was given an undertaking by the HSE last year, following the 2004 report, that such information would be made available on the Internet but this was later withdrawn. I seek clarification from the Tánaiste that the information on inspections will be available on the Internet, subject to the deletion of people's names. I appreciate that less information may be provided on the Internet than would be made available in response to a private inquiry. Will the Tánaiste clarify whether it is her intention that the information would be published on the Internet so that public representatives, family members and the public can check on the inspection of individual centres?

Notwithstanding this relatively positive news, will the Tánaiste acknowledge that there is still some element of disarray in terms of nursing home inspections in that the checking of nursing home inspection reports is not standard prior to the placing of clients in specific nursing homes? No matter what one does to make the system more transparent or independent, if a nursing home is shown to be deficient in certain areas and it remains open, would it not make sense, either through an amendment to legislation such as the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 or even through the introduction of guidelines, to make it mandatory for the HSE to check nursing home inspection reports prior to placement? This would improve public confidence in nursing homes.

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