Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

Last week I raised the issue of nursing homes and in particular the ownership structure of nursing homes. I am not aware if it is a problem in this country but it is a major problem in Great Britain. While the situation in the Rostrevor nursing home was bad enough, imagine what the burden on the State would be had that company or family owned 40 or 50 nursing homes. That issue needs to be addressed. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, committed to introduce whistleblower legislation for the health sector. While it is good for her to talk about that, when Fianna Fáil was in government such legislation was already brought in and was included when the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, was set up. There are questions over why HIQA, having given the all-clear to the Rostrevor nursing home last year, had to seek a court order this year to close it. I am glad it took that action, but it is hard to credit that circumstances would change so dramatically in a number of months.

I am glad to be able to address the issue of Navan hospital on the Adjournment. I note that the political campaigners in Sligo got the bad news last night from the Minister for Health that there would be no change in the national cancer strategy, which I support as it is in the interest of patients. I hope that when these false promises are shown to be the false promises they were, we will never again have the disgraceful political campaigning on the backs of sick people and cancer patients, which we saw in the run-up to elections in a number of areas. I am proud to have supported the national cancer strategy throughout even though some services were lost in the best interests of patients in my area.