John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I do not want to offer excuses in respect of this extremely important issue. Last year, Inclusion Ireland complained that we were not carrying out inspections in respect of children. The position in this regard has changed and such inspections will be forthcoming before the end of this year. I wish I could say when all of these matters will be dealt with. The report is imminent and I am committed to securing the funding to provide for an inspectorate.

I take the point made by the Deputies in respect of the many people who live in institutions of this nature. While I accept that 500 is a large number of complaints - I do not wish to reduce the import of what was said by Members opposite in this regard - many of those complaints could easily have been dealt with if the inspectorate were in place.

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