Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

There is no doubt this is a very important Private Members' motion, where we will speak about a patient safety authority for our health service. I feel strongly about this issue and I am absolutely shocked at the way Ministers have responded. A reign of terror against elderly patients was benignly described as a systems failure by the HSE. On Friday, the Minister, Deputy Harney, poured out what can only be described as useless regret when she stated: "We are learning lessons from this, and we are implementing significant changes to give the required assurance to older people about care standards."

The Minister went on to condemn the complete lack of respect for older people and their dignity which prevailed in the nursing home at Leas Cross. We are not becoming immune to this type of hypocrisy. Neither the Minister nor any Minister could muster up enough interest, let alone respect, to attend the press briefing on the publication of the Leas Cross report. That was in itself one of the most shocking facets of the publication of the report. None of the Ministers even bothered to turn up to give some condolence to the families involved or to indicate that the families were respected and their anger and sadness was understood. Those who did not turn up included the Minister, the Taoiseach, the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, and the former Minister of State, Deputy Callely. None was available to any of the family members at the publication of this report. That was absolutely shocking.

If this report has been referred to the Garda Síochána for whatever reason, why is it the Opposition's Private Members' time which is being used to discuss the report? Why is no urgent debate being organised by the Government on this report? It has been referred to the Garda Síochána, but no need is felt to discuss this significant report in the House, and that is absolutely unbelievable. I will make the charge that there is a cover-up involved with much of this.

Which Ministers knew about what was going on in Leas Cross and what of the other establishments like Leas Cross that have yet to be exposed? Did senior management collude with Ministers with regard to what was known about the occurrences in Leas Cross and other institutions? Did Ministers insist that senior management stay quiet about what was happening in these institutions? This is an unbelievable report that is receiving almost a Mickey Mouse response from the Government. The arrogance is unbelievable.

There is no doubt the Government failed to respond to warnings about what was happening to elderly patients in a small number of institutions. If Ministers were not informed, there was serious negligence on behalf of HSE officials. The self-serving explanations at the back of the Leas Cross report will not get these officials off the hook. We know inspectors of nursing homes, doctors, nurses and other administrators told senior management what was going on, but nothing was done. Somebody must take responsibility for the issue.

There is now an opportunity for officials to come out and state what occurred. It is an opportunity for every official in the HSE to state what happened. There is no way Ministers will get away with what occurred here. I am asking people who work in the HSE to step forward. As a political party, Fianna Fáil has lost all credibility as the defenders of the poor and vulnerable. It shows here tonight, when not even one member of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party could even bother to turn up for this debate.

What does it take to stir Fianna Fáil into real action today, when somebody like Peter McKenna died from neglect in a nursing home or when somebody like P. J. Walsh was allowed to bleed to death in one of our acute hospitals? It is unbelievable to think that a political party which claims to represent the poor is sitting in government doing absolutely nothing while this happens.

The "Prime Time" exposure of the scandal at Leas Cross was the first real public view of what people such as Deputy O'Dowd have been stating in this House for a long time and what we now know individuals such as Martin Hynes were stating in reports which were sent to the HSE. Even today nothing has been done to protect patients to any substantial degree. That is what is shocking about this matter.

Although we all know the Government knew what was going on beforehand and although this Government really only responds to what happens in the media, there was no response when this case was exposed on "Prime Time" for the entire public to see what we all knew was going on for some time. There was absolutely no response of any great significance.

Fianna Fáil deserves a significant amount of the abuse it should get on this issue. It has allowed poor souls to be tortured in what is basically Ireland's version of Abu Ghraib, the notorious prison in Baghdad. Nothing has been done about it. That the Taoiseach has not sacked either the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, or the former Minister of State, Deputy Callely, on the basis of what is coming out here, or that he has not demanded a full inquiry by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children is absolutely shocking.

It is probably arrogance, incompetence or pure laziness and the trappings of power that are preventing the Government from doing anything. It is so far removed, it does not care. The Government believes this in a thriving economy. These patients died as the Government cares about nothing else but the cost of treating people. It has no idea of what it is to value people anymore. That will be its Achilles heel when it comes to facing the people in a few months' time.

Fine Gael today announced it would set up a patient safety authority. The basis of this authority is long overdue. One of the core points of a patient safety authority is that it would be independent and it would not only set standards and accredit institutions, but there would be a system within it where people could make a complaint. The patient safety authority would be obliged to write reports which go to the Minister. I have noticed that with the establishment of the HSE, the Minister is around for all the nice things, but once the heat comes on, the HSE is responsible.

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