Derek McDowell (Labour)

I endorse what others have said on the subject of nursing homes. What we saw last night was deeply shocking. This situation was inevitable, given the utterly chaotic way in which nursing home places and nursing homes have been dealt with in the past number of years. The former Minister for Finance, Mr. Charlie McCreevy, put in place a tax break and the creation of places has been driven entirely by the need to get bricks and mortar in place before a certain date and not by any planning nor any assessment of the available staff, nor by any assessment of the need in a particular area. There are now too many places in some parts of the country and too few in others. There are also too few public places everywhere and inadequate staff numbers in most of the country. This type of abuse arises because of the lack of an adequate inspectorate. It is high time we had a proper debate on the subject in this House and in the other House.

I also largely agree with what has been said by Senator Brian Hayes about the result of the French referendum on the EU constitution. In the next few weeks or months it will be necessary, as has been said by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Jack Straw, to reflect on whether this is the appropriate way to ratify the treaty. We thought we might organise a virtuous domino effect but we are very likely to produce a negative effect instead. At the very least we are looking at a situation where getting the treaty ratified by even those countries that seem willing to do so will lead to a measure of atrophy in the workings of the EU Commission and the European Union in the next two years as we struggle from one referendum to the next. We must consider what is to be done.

I ask the Leader to convey our congratulations to the newly-appointed French ambassador and through him to the newly-appointed Prime Minister of France, Dominique de Villepin. I attended a lecture which he gave in Dublin Castle last year, as did other Members of the House. He is a man of great knowledge, notwithstanding his politics. He also knows a great deal about Ireland and he could reasonably be called a friend of Ireland.