Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

I also welcome the delegation. There is one rule for the private sector and no rule for the public sector. The sooner we get our act together the better. People must take responsibility and to achieve this, a benchmarking measure should be included. Otherwise, we will continue to fight a losing battle against the problem of MRSA. We are all involved in tackling this. Senator Ormonde rightly pointed out that it is a serious problem and it must be addressed. People in administrative posts must take responsibility in this respect. The Government has thrown vast sums of money at the health service.

We have all attended conferences and I am sure some Members have visited Holland. There they searched for and destroyed MRSA. It now has the lowest incidence of MRSA in Europe. We should learn from its experience. We can learn all we want about it but we know what causes it and how to stop the spread of it. If we and administrative staff in all the hospitals and nursing homes do not have the will to tackle it, we will lose the battle.

Superbugs are spread through poor hygiene and the failure to implement proper cleaning and sterilising practices. Such bugs are largely preventable. Effective cleaning procedures and good hygiene practices can eliminate the spread of almost all of them. What is required is not rocket science but simply proper cleaning and housekeeping practices.

It is incredible that we are debating the serious problem of the incidence of MRSA which has been prevalent for many years.