Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

These questions relate to the OECD report on better regulation. Last night we saw on our television screens an example of no regulation. The "Prime Time Investigates" programme showed horrific examples of the way in which home care companies are recruiting workers with no training, no Garda vetting and no checking of references. It appears there is little or no inspection of what is taking place. A policy decision by this Government to wind down services being provided through the public health authorities and the HSE cut the amount of home help that is available to families caring for older people. A new private sector in home care provision has developed which is not regulated and parts of it, as we saw last night, has serious questions to answer. When will there be regulation of home care provision to deal with the horrific examples of abuse of elderly people which we saw on our television screens last night?

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