Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not know where to start in discussing last night. On a personal note, because I have a son who often uses respite services in a residential unit, I felt it very deeply, as did many of the parents who contacted me last night. It is sickening to think that our most vulnerable people could be treated like that, left 15 hours without food, force-fed, physically hit, and mentally abused, with staff refusing to clean them and denying them their basic human rights. I was sickened last night and ashamed that even today we are paying lip service to this issue.

I have thought long and hard about this all night and I am tabling an amendment to the Order of Business that we have the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, come to the House today to discuss what has happened. This is far too serious to sweep it under the carpet and just say that we will have an inquiry into it. We need a totally independent inquiry, free from all those who are involved in social care. We cannot leave this until after Christmas. We cannot wait another month to discuss it again. This must be discussed today.

It was said last night that under the HIQA report less than 2% of centres concerned actually complied with regulations. That is abysmal. It was reported that 3,000 people were in residential care. There are more like 8,000 people, if one takes into account the people who are in and out of those, or who are living in smaller community settings. That could have happened anywhere. I asked last week that we have a debate on this immediately after Prime Time last night, because I knew what was coming from what I was dealing with, from people contacting me with complaints who have nowhere else to go. HIQA will not deal with individual reports. We must examine this issue seriously. I asked yesterday again that this action be taken. I have thought long and hard about this. This is not a rash move. I came into the Seanad-----