Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

We stated last night that no Minister showed sufficient respect to elderly people to bother turning up at the HSE press conference last Thursday. Now, we see the same Ministers cannot bother to stay in the Dáil Chamber to hear what the Opposition has to state about the Leas Cross report. This is the type of arrogance creeping into the Government which makes it disrespectful to the people it is supposed to represent.

I thank all Deputies who contributed to the debate. I recognise the great work done by families, care assistants, doctors, nurses, private nursing homes and administrators in the HSE who care about patients. When I commented on the HSE tonight, the people I am referring to know who I am talking about — it is not everybody in the HSE but a small cohort who more or less colluded with Ministers, as Deputy Ring said, over the past nine or ten years in keeping elderly people in terrible conditions in a small minority of nursing homes and letting people get away with it.

It seems that there is no end to the scandalous fallout from the Leas Cross affair. Today, it was revealed that 14 months after the "Prime Time" programme and 20 months after Martin Hynes had seen and reported on the poor treatment of residents in Leas Cross, nothing has changed in the inspection of nursing homes. Absolutely nothing has changed so what does it take to wake up the Government? There is no doubt that both the Government and the HSE have been left with zero credibility as regards looking after the elderly, given what we have seen in the past couple of weeks.

The Government's amendment in response to Fine Gael and Labour's motion for the urgent creation of a patient safety authority is a damning indictment of its failure. The amendment shows up the Government's incompetence, which is unbelievable. There are 14 points in the Government's amendment and those dealing with patient safety or setting standards in the health service are either non-existent or have been in a need-to-do category for at least five years. I doubt whether too many members of the Fianna Fáil Party have read those points, but if they did they would find they are not currently part of the health care service.

I will take one example to demonstrate why we should not longer believe the Government cares about elderly people. The Neary scandal in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital was exposed in 1998 but even today, as we speak in this Chamber, we have no competence assurance for doctors, no new medical practitioners Bill and no HIQA legislation, which includes the social services inspectorate. All of these things were promised before the last election. This week, just like last year when this scandal was exposed in the "Prime Time" programme, which struck a deep chord with the general public, they were all promised again. This is totally unacceptable to the public. The Government has refused to accept the very things on which it was asked to make recommendations.

It gets worse, especially when we deal with the recommendations of the report by Judge Harding-Clark on Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. Yesterday, the Minister, Deputy Harney, told the House that things had improved dramatically with regard to the recommendations in the judge's report on Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. However, neither the Minister, her officials, the HSE nor, to the best of my knowledge, the hospital itself have any action plan to deal with the report's recommendations, which is completely contrary to what the Minister said last night. She has done nothing to implement those recommendations. In fact, and this can be confirmed by the HSE, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is short 40 staff nurses and midwives. The hospital where this crisis started and which led to the Neary report is now short of staff nurses and midwives. It is back in crisis again, where it all began. The Government cannot seem to get it right when it comes to protecting patients.

This morning, I took part in RTE's "Morning Ireland" programme. On the same programme Mr. Aidan Brown represented the HSE and tried to provide the type of reassurances we have come to expect from the Government and the HSE. It is the type of reassurance people probably got on the Titanic. It was so half-hearted it was a disgrace. He was trying to tell us that proper inspections are now being carried out but he was caught out before. Since the day the HSE was established we have been told that things will get better. A year later, "Prime Time" exposed the fact that matters are getting worse. The HSE may apologise but its gets caught again for not improving the inspection regime.

Mr. Brown tells us that things are getting better but I have been made aware that in the past three months, nursing home inspections were carried out for the HSE with no doctor or nurse present. After all that has happened in the past, that is the type of inspection report Mr. Aidan Brown is trying to convince the people of Ireland is adequate in this day and age.

The Minister of Health and Children also spoke about standards of care being promoted by the Irish Health Service Accreditation Board. Most people will not be familiar with that board. Last November, the Minister received standards that were drawn up by this board. I would like to know if those standards have been published and, if so, are they being used? I believe, however, that they have not been published one year after they were received by the Minister for Health and Children. Therefore, the very elements, which the Minister is telling us are making things better, are not actually being implemented. We do not have HIQA or the social services inspectorate to protect nursing homes. In addition, we are not using the Irish Health Service Accreditation Board's standards. Nothing to which the Minister referred is being used.

Item 12 in the Government's amendment to the motion "notes that the Minister for Health and Children will introduce regulations in early 2007 which will set out a statutory framework for the introduction of a complaints process throughout the HSE". If there was ever a perfect example as to why Fine Gael and Labour's patient safety authority needs to be established urgently, this is it. Two years after the establishment of the HSE, the Minister has not drawn up the set of regulations under which patients could make complaints. The Minister in charge has not introduced a process whereby patients can make complaints about the HSE. This is incompetent. I know that some people may not understand what corporate governance is but surely Ministers, who have been in power for almost a decade, understand the most basic things about it. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Another issue has cropped up with regard to the report on the death of Mr. P. J. Walsh. We have seen no improvements in the service in the north east, but I will deal with that matter at the Committee on Health and Children tomorrow. The recommendations of the inquiry into Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital have not been implemented by the Government either.

I now turn to the case of Mr. Peter McKenna. The House will be aware that Mr. Martin Hynes, who appeared on television last week to discuss this issue, wrote the report on Mr. Peter McKenna in 2000. It concerned a patient who was treated disgracefully in Leas Cross, yet those responsible still sent patients in there. They were being sent to their doom and those responsible did not care. Leas Cross is a shocking indictment of the Government's incompetence and arrogance. As Deputy Ring said, at least one Minister should resign to show that the Government has some respect for the people it claims to represent. The actions of those concerned are both shameful and disgraceful.

The failure to provide a funding policy for future care of the elderly is another aspect of this problem. The Government has no problem pushing through legislation to force elderly people to sell their homes, but it has no respect for patients when it comes to their future care.

Some of the Government's representatives here obviously do not have a clue what is going on. HIQA is not better than the Fine Gael and Labour proposals. To the best of my knowledge, HIQA does not apply to private hospitals. The Progressive Democrats are trying to build more private hospitals even though there is currently no set of standards to protect patients. Therefore, what the Progressive Democrats claim they will establish, with their lap-dogs in Fianna Fáil, will not even apply to private hospitals. In some respects, HIQA is the Irish version of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK. Recently, the latter body tried to deny UK cancer patients a drug because it cost too much. The HIQA proposal is all about costs, processes and evaluation. It does not put the patient at the centre of focus for the health care services. The Government has really lost touch with the sort of people it is supposed to be representing. That is why it gets wrapped up in processes, evaluation and all that old nonsense.

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