Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Norris for sharing his time with me. I am glad to have this opportunity to discuss this awful issue. I thank the Minister of State for facilitating this debate at such short notice and for listening to such an array of abuse which is most offensive.

I could nearly cry when I think back on that programme the other night. I do not want to make a political football out of this issue. I do not want Members to barrack each other across the floor of the House as to how good Members opposite would have been in dealing with this issue if they had been on this side of the House and how bad Members on this side are because we did not do the job we should have done.

We should be all singing the one tune in regard to this issue. This is a dreadful situation. All of us who saw that programme were shocked. We heard of the litany of suffering those elderly people had to endure. I was shocked and mesmerised looking at the screen when I saw a patient's bed sores, a carer putting his hand into the face of a patient and compelling her to take her tablets on another occasion, and, when an elderly lady called for attention, the carer was sleeping in a chair. That was shocking. This nursing home was run as a commercial outfit. These patients were not treated as people in the eyes of the owners of this nursing home. That shocked me all the more.

We should have had regulations in place. We are all wrong in that regard. I was a Member of this House when the Members opposite were in Government and the need to update the regulations and the nursing Act of 1990 did not arise. We all are guilty of that. The Members opposite should not give us the line that they are better than us. I am here to make sure that this will never happen again.