John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

In many of the media reports subsequent to the event in Lusk it did not appear that this fact was taken into account. The House should express its gratitude to the gardaí for the way in which they look after us, the public and the State. There should be no compromise on that and to say it is not to be in any way unsympathetic to the loss of life. We must decry the loss of life and we await the reports that will be made on the incident. It is essential that the House reaffirms its support for the forces of law and order in the State.

On the matter of the French referendum on the EU constitution, the French people have spoken and it would be appropriate for us to reflect on and debate the outcome. The best time to do so would possibly be after we have considered the outcome of the ballot this week in the Netherlands and next month's EU Council of Ministers meeting. One of the difficulties is that such referendums are increasingly becoming votes of confidence in the government, which is being confused with the merits of the constitutional treaty. As one who is an enthusiast for the adoption of the constitutional treaty, I hope we will support it here.

We were all appalled by what we saw in the "Prime Time" programme last night from which serious issues clearly arise, most centrally related to the rights of patients. Having seen the programme it seemed that the rights of the patients had been trodden upon, which is not acceptable. We look forward to measures being introduced to deal effectively with the issues that were raised. In the face of a rapidly aging population it was appropriate to introduce measures to encourage investment in nursing homes. What takes place inside such homes is separate from the need for additional nursing home places.