Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We were all shocked to the core by what we saw on television last night. Most of us do not watch much television, but last night's programme was what one might call "reserved viewing". Nothing prepared me for what I saw last night. I know a little about this sector as my wife is a nurse and works in a residential care home and is well used to dealing with individuals with disabilities or challenging behaviour. Not all of those in Áras Attracta have challenging behaviour. From my little knowledge of the issue, the challenging behaviour displayed seemed to result from the way the residents were treated and the failure to communicate with them by staff. The lack of communication is often the reason for challenging behaviour. I was shocked to my core, as was everybody in the country who watched the programme.

I never saw such a reaction to a TV programme - on Twitter, on Facebook, talking to people, meeting people, etc. What we saw was appalling, shocking and completely contrary to human decency. I was tweeting during the programme and in one of my tweets I said I felt a bricklayer would handle his bricks more carefully than these special women were handled by some of the staff. Their treatment was outrageous. The Minister mentioned that this happened in their home. This key point was forgotten, namely, that this happened in these people's home. They should be treated as if they are at home and people are well paid to do their job of care. We acknowledge staff have suffered cuts, but theirs is not a bad job. Many people are trying to get into nursing and care services and it does not take a huge amount of professional training to know what not to do in this situation.

I have a number of concerns. Last night after the "Prime Time" programme I watched the discussion, during which the Minister of State said she could not give any assurances that this is not happening elsewhere. She must be able to give these assurances. We need assurances that this is not happening elsewhere. We also need immediate action from her. There must be immediate implementation of the current HSE proposals to ensure the system is operating as it should. One of the big concerns is the pre-announced inspections being undertaken by HIQA. These tend to wind the staff up and put them in a panic about HIQA turning up for the period of time it is there. Everything, of course, will be all right on the day. If visits were unannounced and if HIQA could show up unannounced at any time, people would be aware of that and work on that basis. The way the system operates currently is that the announced inspections do not benefit residents or service users at all but just put stress on staff. This needs to change completely. We need a change of mindset so that we know what is happening.

The undercover actions and secret cameras were essential to what was uncovered and shown on TV last night. Thank God for the people who did that difficult job. I pay tribute to the RTE researchers involved.

There are issues of privacy involved here. I know that RTE had to seek the permission of all the families involved and I am sure it was a big ordeal for them. The Minister of State needs to be able to give people assurances. She needs to do everything in her power, as does the HSE, to make sure that this type of behaviour is not happening in other care homes. Clearly a disgusting culture developed in that place that allowed such behaviour to happen and that allowed people to be treated as less than human. It was truly awful.

I have some other concerns too. Whistleblower legislation was passed in the Houses of the Oireachtas recently which provides that guidelines will be drawn up for staff in the public sector on the implementation of the law in terms of blowing the whistle, so to speak. What has happened in that regard in the HSE? Has the executive issued guidelines to staff? Have the voluntary bodies that run similar care homes issued guidelines to their staff? If people want to blow the whistle on bad practices today, what should they do? Who should they ring? What is the procedure? While somebody like Mr. Ryan who sent a dossier to the Committee of Public Accounts would, as a senior civil servant, be well-versed in the provisions of legislation, the average nurse or care assistant is too busy to read the Protected Disclosures Act. They need to have a simple way of blowing the whistle. I suggest that a hot line be set up immediately so that nurses, care staff or anyone else with an interest can blow the whistle on bad practices. Such people need to be able to ring up and give information, whether to the Department or to the HSE. That information could be critical, dignity saving or even life saving. I would also like the Minister of State to come back in due course and give us an update on the Garda investigation into the activities at Swinford. If an assault were to take place outside the House today, those involved would be arrested immediately and rightly so. The same should apply here and I would urge the Garda Síochána to adopt a similar proactive approach in the case of Áras Attracta. I wish the gardaí the very best with their investigations.

These events have also sullied the name of a great Irish women who is not very well known; St. Attracta who ran a hostel for vulnerable people 1,500 years ago. Her memory has been sullied.