Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I wish to share my time with Senators Cummins and Finucane.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I watched the programme with shock as did everybody else. It was particularly shocking because I knew one of the families involved but I never realised the experience they went through and the conditions under which their mother lived in the nursing home and subsequently died as a result of the lack of good care which she should have received there.

We have all let down those elderly people who have suffered in the Leas Cross nursing home or who are suffering in other nursing homes. We can be sure the same type of behaviour is happening in other nursing homes. I hang my head in shame at the thought that I would be responsible in any way for allowing an elderly person to be cared for in such a situation. If we cannot look after our elderly people in a proper fashion we should hang our heads in shame. These are the elderly people who worked in this country during very difficult times and the least they deserve now is to be cared for in their old age at a time when our country is doing really well and when many of us have money in our pockets. It is to all our shame that they should have been put into such a vulnerable position. It is urgent that we put measures in place to ensure this practice ceases and never happens again.

I worked in a nursing home for a short time and saw at first hand how vulnerable and totally dependent on carers many of these people are. As some of them are bedridden and may have Alzheimer's disease, they are like babies. We all know the care babies need. Many of the elderly people in our nursing homes also need that type of care. They should not be put into situations where they can be abused as we saw on television on Monday night. I agree with many of the speakers who said that many elderly people do not need to be in nursing homes. I take this opportunity to ask the Government to give people the resources to be able to stay in their own homes. They should be given additional home-help care and the disabled person's grant, and contributions should be made to voluntary organisations to allow them stay in their homes.

I compliment and commend Deputy O'Dowd for the work he has done. I also compliment RTE. It is another reflection on how we do our business here and on how the Government does its business that we need to react to programmes on television. On many occasions the "Prime Time" programme has highlighted dreadful problems in our society and we react — as we must react. However, the same issues are raised by individual Senators and Deputies in these Houses and we fail to get the responses. We raise many other issues here such as children who are in poverty and hungry without getting a response. Let us not wait for any more "Prime Time" programmes to deal with these issues. I want the issue tackled quickly to ensure our elderly people are protected.