Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cullinane and his party for bringing this very important motion before the House this evening. I also welcome the people from the sector in the Public Gallery. If I am ever wrong about anything I will always admit it. I thought all along that the real difficulty was with the smaller nursing homes, that they were finding it difficult to survive. However, I realised at the weekend after a number of important meetings with people who run bigger nursing homes that they too are in dire financial difficulty. For any business, whatever it is, to work, it has to bring in enough money to cover its costs, be able to run the show, wash its face and keep going forward. However, nursing homes cannot do that at the moment.

I am not a critical person but what is wrong with this Government is that there is no business person among its members. Not one of them has to pay anybody on a Friday evening. That is what is wrong with this Government. If its members had to go home at the weekend and pay people, they would know what it is to run a business but they do not have a clue. They expect the people running nursing homes, small, medium and large, to be able to run at a loss. They cannot run at a loss. We cannot have a situation in which public facilities are able to get thousands of euro every week while these people are supposed to run on a shoestring, keep their show on the road and deal with HIQA, that out-of-control, horrible monster that goes around the country doing more harm to our fine nursing homes.

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