Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)

I acknowledge public service broadcasting and the role of RTÉ in showing this footage and going undercover. When you query paying a television licence fee, this is public service broadcasting at its best, unpalatable as it may be to watch and as uncomfortable as it may be for family members, I am sure. I understand from talking to colleagues in the Portlaoise area that there were other family members who did not consent to the footage being shown, even blurred and obscured, because they did not want their loved ones to be shown in that fashion. I can understand that.

As Senator Black touched on, none of us know what our future will be. In the case of my own father, Lord have mercy on him, we were able to keep him at home, but he was nearly totally immobile at the end and non-verbal. These are difficult things. I do not have children and I am unlikely to at this stage of my life, and you worry who is there to look after you if you were in a situation in a nursing home. That is why we should aspire to statutory home care. Having the opportunity to be cared for in your own home rather than a nursing home should be the norm. That is not to say there are not great and wonderful nursing homes. I understand there were nursing homes that were small family units that were closed down and residents moved to other nursing homes, at least one of them being the one in question in Portlaoise. There needs to be a sea-change in all of this area, as well as the adult safeguarding that goes with all of this.

HIQA obviously has a board. What engagement has the board had on these issues with regard to its responsibilities? The delay from notification by HIQA was not good enough. That is an absolute shortcoming. If information is being provided, it should be in there rapidly – as immediately as possible – to investigate. Staffing has been an issue and I understand that. I refer to the basics of incontinence pads. A man was told there were no staff to bring him to the toilet, so he should use his pad and not wet the sheets. How absolutely degrading is that in this day and age? HIQA needs to do a lot of work to improve its processes because it is the guardian. If I end up in a nursing home, who do I call? HIQA is the one that is there to oversee what goes on in nursing homes as regards the care of loved ones, particularly those who may not have immediate family members or who may have very loving family members who might live in another part of the country or the world and who rely on the care of the staff and management of a nursing home. I appreciate there are very good staff, but that is what we expect and demand - that there be a good staff, that there be sufficient staff, that the basics be there, that the processes be there and that if there are problems, they be identified, reported and dealt with quickly.

There is an important job of work ahead for the Minister of State and the Government and I wish him well. It is important we get good delivery for all our citizens, not just for now, but into the future.