Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)

On the substantive point, what the Opposition did muster was a call for a new so-called patient safety authority. This is strange given the Health Information and Quality Authority is already in place, albeit on an interim basis.

The call for a patient safety authority seems quite restrictive, timid and unambitious given that the Minister's Bill provides for inspection of all nursing homes, both public and private, as well as residential centres for children and people with disabilities. The Opposition has sets its sights quite low, and the Government is correct to provide for a wider remit. All of these residential locations must be subject to rigorous and effective inspection. The Government's Bill is much more ambitious than anything Fine Gael has proposed in this motion.

It is reminiscent of Fine Gael's unambitious commitment to delivering 600 new step-down beds when the Minister has already explicitly said the HSE is to use as many public and private nursing home beds as required to free up beds for patients awaiting admission. Acute beds that become available as a result will be ring-fenced for those patients awaiting admission in accident and emergency departments. It is as many as is required and not just 600.

The Minister for Health and Children's Bill is evidence of the Government's determination to make patient safety the driver of major reform throughout the health system. It sets new standards, will strengthen the inspection regime, and ensure the gathering and publication of new information on services. This approach has delivered progress on hospital hygiene and must work within this sector. I welcome all positive and realistic contributions from all sides of the House. Much is being done, and this is needed because there is no doubt that problems persist. This acknowledges the persistence of these problems.

The Government is working to make patients' voices increasingly heard. Only then will the correct decisions and actions be taken. The Government has made it clear that as many services as possible will be made available as locally and as safely as possible. We must recognise the problems, the action needed and the action already under way. To do otherwise serves nobody, least of all the patient. While raising this issue is commendable, it would be more commendable if it were done in the context of an engagement which was positive and ambitious and which recognised the work already achieved.

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