Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

We have discussed the Leas Cross report by Professor Desmond O'Neill for a considerable time and I am glad it has been published. It has identified many deficiencies in the standard of care for older people in that nursing home and in the actions required to uphold those standards. The deficiencies in care are deeply upsetting to the families of those who died in the Leas Cross nursing home and to many others also. The Government understands their distress and will lead the legislative actions and funding decisions to ensure high standards of care are upheld in all nursing homes, public and private, in the State. We have been doing so for some years in fact and there are legislative issues that need to be significantly strengthened, as I said last year when these issues came to light. We know from Professor O'Neill's report and other earlier reports that complaints and warnings were not given the attention they warranted. This is a matter of deep regret.

Professor O'Neill did not engage in an exercise in blame, nor did he recommend disciplinary action but some people involved have challenged his assessment. The report has been sent to the Garda and the Medical Council for their consideration because matters arise that must be examined.

Our priority, as Deputy Kenny asked, is to prevent such events occurring again. The Government is finalising its work on the health Bill 2006, with a view to publication this session. This legislation will create a thorough and robust system of inspections and establish, for the first time, a statutory office of the chief inspector of the social services within the health information and quality authority, which will have specific statutory responsibilities for the registration and inspection of all nursing home places, both public and private. The chief inspector will inspect homes against the regulations governing them and standards set by the HIQA.

The Bill will also strengthen and modernise the registration and deregistration process. New standards for all long-term residential care facilities for older people have already been prepared. The Minister for Health and Children published the draft heads of the Bill, a 122-page document, in the spring. We received dozens of submissions following publication and the valuable comments received have informed the Government's work on the Bill. I will not go through the long list of submissions received from different bodies and groups.

The nursing home regulations, under which the Health Service Executive carries out inspections of private nursing homes, were introduced in 1994. They will be replaced by the new regulations to be made under the proposed legislation, with the objective of strengthening the standards of care for residents in nursing homes.

As I have said on this issue on many occasions, it is a matter of deep regret that these events took place. It is even more regrettable that warnings were not heeded. It is now our task to deal with the issues and I have outlined how we propose to do this.

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