Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I have taken part in a number of discussions on nursing homes in recent years. The catalogue of failure is nothing other than a disgrace. We all have to accept that the RTE investigation into Leas Cross represented a milestone in the evolution of nursing home care. Never in the history of care of the elderly was anything more starkly brought across to the public about what could happen. I am from a county where I hope and have every reason to believe that most nursing homes, at least the ones I know about, are run very well. However, that is not enough. When I heard about the non-publication of Professor O'Neill's report I was shocked. I have no idea what is in the report but I have never heard a case of such a document not being published where everybody concerned had the interest of the elderly at heart.

I assume several interests are involved, though I am not privy to them, and that there are people in very high places, whether connected to the HSE or to ancillary services, whose noses would be put out of joint if the report was published. Does the Minister of State, or his senior Minister, know what is contained in it? It will shame everybody if it cannot be published.

If the will existed to publish the report it would have been published under the privilege of this House, as has been done many times before, such as with public accounts and many other reports. Why was that not done with the O'Neill report? Why was it not brought into the House and made public?

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