George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)

As someone whose family is lucky enough to be in a position to keep their mother in her home while she requires care, with the help of some wonderful carers and my sister living with her, the spectre of what we saw on our TV screens a number of weeks ago was truly appalling. Families across the country looked on in horror as evil appeared on our screens. I do not need to rehearse all the condemnations that have been rightly chorused, but seeing the footage was a chilling catalogue of all that is bad about the private sector takeover of the care of the elderly in this country. We have a situation where the care of the elderly in some, not all, but a considerable number of units is far from being either caring or considerate.

Yesterday, I listened to an amazing, articulate and well informed woman on my local South East Radio, Dr. Margaret Kennedy. She is part of a campaign called Equality Not Cruelty. Its campaign is focused on the urgent reform of HIQA and ensuring that ill-treatment and violations of dignity, respect and care in residential nursing homes never happens again. This amazing 72-year-old woman, who lives with a neuromuscular disease, succinctly and articulately summed it up for so many in her situation. She said her group spoke for disabled people and older people in its campaign. She said when she saw the images on her television screen, it was clear that older people were being commodified. She said that older people were being warehoused in these places and that money was the root of all the difficulties. Who could disagree? She went on to say that these places are called nursing homes, but nobody should call them homes of any kind, because that is certainly not what they are. She had listened with interest recently to a discussion at an Oireachtas committee where someone from HIQA spoke about a care deficit.

I agree with her that this is an extraordinary phrase to use when describing criminal offences whereby people have been assaulted or criminally abused. That is not a care deficit; it is criminal activity. How can there be 198 abuse reports about Beneavin Manor in Dublin and 40 reports regarding The Residence Portlaoise, but it takes the work of an RTÉ investigative team before we talk about it here in the Oireachtas?

Our motion calls for the nationalisation of the 27 nursing homes controlled by Emeis Ireland. That is the least we can do to send a signal to those sailing close to the wind that we are sick to the teeth of profit driving their motives in looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Like every public service that is overrun by the greed of boardrooms, this sector has once again shown that when it comes to the provision of essential services in the State, greed always trumps the good. The ideology we have seen over the years absolutely fosters that approach.

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