Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I want to put on record that she is probably one of the most progressive Ministers in the Government. She listens to people, she understands where they are coming from and she reacts. This legislation exactly embodies her approach to politics. Everything has unintended consequences and we sometimes have to deal with those unintended consequences. Everybody who has loved ones in facilities, whether nursing homes or facilities to look after people with disabilities, expects a certain standard and expects things to be done right. People are not expecting luxury but they are expecting the basics to be done right. It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that that happens and to have the proper checks and balances and inspections in place. We need to move to random unannounced inspections in all of these facilities, although I know that takes time. What is proposed in the Bill is a major step in the right direction and anyone with a sense of responsibility will endorse it wholeheartedly.

By and large, HIQA does a good job. It probably does too good a job at times, which does not favour it with some people. However, it does it for the right reasons and it is motivated by quality and standards. It is the Health Information and Quality Authority, at the end of the day.

The fair deal, by its very title, is fair. However, somebody living in County Kerry or County Clare who just has cousins and wants to leave their landholding to a cousin cannot benefit from the fair deal, which is unfair. What we are doing here is levelling the playing pitch and making it fair and inclusive so people do not feel vulnerable because they do not have immediate family, such as sons, daughters, nieces or nephews. The vulnerability that old people feel when they do not necessarily have that immediate circle can be very frightening. If there is a cousin who is close to them, who has been good to them, who they have grown up with and who they trust and love, that should be possible.

It is absolutely the right thing to do. We are here to do the right thing. We do not always get it right, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach and the Minister of State know, but we do our very best to get it right. The changes that the Minister of State is proposing to the Mental Health Bill are also extremely welcome. Overall, the reason we are taking all Stages of this Bill today is that we would be shocked if anybody had a problem with it, and nobody has.

I thank the Minister of State. If I do not see her in the meantime, I hope she gets some bit of a break during the recess because she well deserves it.