Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Kitt's comments about the Bank of Ireland closing a number of branches in small towns. This drives a coach and four through the concept of rural development. It is important to have a bank in a small town, particularly for the local business and farming communities. The House should call on the banks to reconsider this policy. It is a self-centred policy that does nothing for rural areas.

As a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, I strongly agree with the remarks about the Leas Cross Nursing Home report. There is a legal difficulty but I strongly support the view that this report should be published at some stage. I also share the view expressed by Senator Ó Murchú about the incumbent Minister. Deputy Harney is a role model for any public representative or anybody who wishes to enter public life. She is courageous and has not been found wanting with regard to any matter within her remit. Leas Cross is an exception, not the rule. There are excellent care-givers in all the institutions, public and private.

However, as I pointed out at the last meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children to both Professor Drumm and the Minister, Deputy Harney, the local visiting committees should be reintroduced. In most cases, when members of the visiting committee visited the public institutions — there is no example of a Leas Cross in the public institutions — they were invariably recognised by the residents of those institutions. The visiting committee might include a local councillor or local nurse and they also knew the residents. That had therapeutic value for the residents of the institutions. This must be given consideration.

When the report of the visiting committee was sent to the health board, it was a public report. For more than 23 years I was a member of——