Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I welcome this discussion. This morning I acknowledged the role of the High Court judge who refused the owners of the Leas Cross nursing home an injunction and allowed the "Prime Time" programme to be broadcast. By doing so he has done a great service to the nation in highlighting the issue. I agree that many nursing homes are run very efficiently. A brother-in-law of mine contracted multiple sclerosis at a young age and subsequently died. He spent time in a private nursing home where I witnessed the care he was given in difficult times. It would be wrong to tarnish all nursing homes.

However, from what I have seen in the newspapers and on the television programme, this nursing home appears to be state-of-the-art and ultra modern. It was opened by the Taoiseach in 1997 and more recently an extension was opened by Deputy Wright. While clearly it is very modern, the modern veneer on the outside belied what went on inside. The programme seemed to resonate with many people on the issue of how we care for the elderly. It is on how we care for the elderly that we can be assessed. People are living longer and the Minister of State said it is internationally recognised that only 5% of the older population will need long-term care in private nursing homes. Modern buildings are being constructed in many cases with tax incentives. I wonder whether the sense of caring and the social dimension in those private nursing homes is being acknowledged or whether the bottom line is of paramount importance.

In my area in the mid-western region, few patients receive subventions from the Health Service Executive to go into private nursing homes, so most patients are private patients. However, in this case approximately 80% of the residents were public patients.

I was interested in what Senator Jim Walsh said earlier about the Health Service Executive and I wonder what research the executive does before placing people in such homes. There is pressure for step-down facilities owing to the problems in hospitals who do not have places for elderly patients. However, a hospital should not resolve a problem it has without being satisfied about the step-down facilities available. This is why it is critical to have an independent inspectorate. If we go into the summer recess without doing something constructive in this area we would deserve to be castigated by the people. Traditionally when we go into summer recess the attitude of journalists is,"They're off". However, we should be ashamed of ourselves if we do not move amendments to the existing legislation, if that is what is required, and fail to put a framework in place. The Minister of State has said he is to have a meeting with the committee, which is to report in the middle of June. I have tried to be constructive in this discussion. One could be very critical of some of the things happening, having listened to Senator Minihan detail what happened in 2003. I wonder whether the then Minister of State, Deputy Callely, was listening at all at the time. This is something that has not suddenly materialised. We should have known it was imminent. If there were problems in the past, they were highlighted.

We should sit up and take notice. If there is one message for the future, it is that we should not need a "Prime Time" programme to take action regarding such situations. If one is running a health service effectively, especially with the new Health Service Executive, one should take timely remedial action. We should not need that type of programme to highlight this issue. We should be thankful that it was on, but in future, we should not be reacting to "bushfires" in the Health Service Executive and trying to extinguish them.