Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, congratulate Senator John Gilroy and hope to be able to attend the launch, subject to the proceedings of the House. I wish him well and commend him for his efforts.

We are giving a commitment that we will not oppose the Order of Business, even though we may wish to do so, because we have a full programme of legislation before us which may run until midnight. It will be an extremely long and busy day. I hope the debate on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 will be reasoned and tempered and expect no less from this House.

I am deeply concerned about the Government's attitude towards the health service across the country. Yesterday we heard about cutbacks in mental health services. This House has discussed suicide and other important issues. Any cutback to mental health funding is a backwards step and should be resisted. We will return next term with all guns blazing on cutbacks in mental health services and other areas of the health service. I am particularly concerned about the reports that have been acknowledged by the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. It is a frightening statistic that only ten out of 109 public nursing homes meet the new standards set out by HIQA. The Minister of State has acknowledged that it will cost several hundred million euro to rectify the problem. People like Eamon Timmins of Age Action Ireland have called on the Government to ensure HIQA standards are complied with by the 2015 deadline. I urge the Government to act with urgency on this issue. The patients in these nursing homes are primarily elderly. Some are in their 80s or 90s. There was a situation recently in my own area where a small home run by a geriatric association was closed and its 11 elderly occupants faced terrible inconvenience as the health board went about the almost impossible task of finding new accommodation for them. It is appalling that the Government failed to make provision in the last two budgets to make a start on this task. The Minister of State has suggested no home will close, but if they do not meet the standards laid down, will we be running a two tier system? Are the standards for private nursing homes at higher than those applying to public homes? That would be an appalling vista. I urge the Leader to arrange a specific debate in the next term on elderly care and the nursing home debacle. If money has to be spent to ensure the elderly are treated fairly and properly, we must spend it. I am putting the Leader on notice that the issue will be top of our agenda when we return in September. We will be forcing vote after vote on the issue until such time as the Minister of State assures the elderly that they will have a safe home and a proper place in which to live out the rest of their days.