Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and I are listening to Deputy Ó Muirí and he is so right. What has haunted me from the programme, and he has captured it very well, was the lack of basic humanity. Yes, there is more this Government needs to do and will do. The Minister, Deputy MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, are leading on this as regards safeguarding legislation and all of that. We will do it as a priority and we are taking it extraordinarily seriously. However, there is also just basic humanity. How can any human being do that to another human being? How can anyone take an elderly man and thrown him on a bed like that, or hurtle someone with dementia down a corridor? It sickens all of us.

There are questions for HIQA to answer. I want to say that in a balanced way as HIQA has done a lot of good. It has been a positive development in our healthcare landscape. The way it went into University Hospital Limerick is an example of robust examination. Nobody gets everything right but on this occasion there are legitimate questions. The Minister will be engaging and meeting with HIQA next week. We will continue to pursue this. No organisation is beyond reproach and it needs to reflect in this instance.

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