David Norris (Independent)

——but in any case, they found that the ambulance did not turn up. A real ambulance had not been called, rather a type of patient care vehicle. It was only when the family said they were taking him into hospital that an ambulance was produced. In the event, that ambulance was there in ten minutes, so sometimes the services exist, but are not properly being called on.

There is a growing problem for a variety of reasons. First of all, Ireland has changed in social terms. We do not have the extended family any longer. This is having major effects. I expressed concern yesterday on the Order of Business about the alleged extraordinary high levels of what was described as psychiatric illness among children. If it is true that one fifth of children suffer from serious psychiatric illness, then it is not just the children who should be examined but the whole organisation of society. Again it strikes me that the extended family norm no longer exists.

For a variety of reasons an increasing number of people make use of services of this type and in some cases this is not entirely appropriate. I heard a woman speak on this subject who said she had been running a nursing home for the past 30 years and that it had changed significantly because of the increased number of elderly people with severe Alzheimer's disease who needed one-to-one care virtually around the clock. She said nursing homes were not in a position to provide this care. It is wrong to blame nursing homes if there are people in them who are not appropriate candidates for this type of treatment. We must look very closely at the issue of Alzheimer's disease.

I am very concerned about the inspection of nursing homes. It seems to me that particularly since Leas Cross, private nursing homes are subject to inspection. I am much less happy about publicly funded nursing homes because we hear so little about what goes on in them. If, in the regime of nursing homes for which patients pay enormous amounts of money and relatives routinely visit, almost nothing is heard about the situation in State-funded and State-run homes, there is an urgent case for a proper inspection regime for such institutions and I do not believe this is happening.

By coincidence I have just left the restaurant where I spoke to somebody who is not a Member of the Oireachtas but is a crucial part of the parliamentary system, namely, Ms Anne Byrne, a programme manager to Deputy Howlin.