Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I echo Senator Bacik's comments about the people of Liège, who are obviously struggling to cope with the events of yesterday and the deaths of some of their citizens. I ask the Leader if the Minister for Health might consider an idea from the UK — the Good Care Guide, which is an online service to encourage users and their families to rate care homes for the elderly. However, it is not just an online service. The UK is also introducing patient rights groups called "Health Watch". These are committees which include representation from relatives of care users. These health-watch teams will be enabled by legislation to visit care homes as independent visitors with full visiting rights. However, this will be done in conjunction with the online guide. It would be very simple, effective and useful to introduce some level of scrutiny of care homes. I do not suggest that this would replace HIQA's work. However, patients and their families would have a role and a capacity to observe what is going on. These ideas came from conversations with families of users about how they felt they could be assisted to better help their elderly relatives. It would be useful and cost effective, and could be set up relatively quickly. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Health to consider introducing such a system?