The Government has "severely dented" public confidence in the standard of nursing home care in the State, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dáil today.
Addressing the issues surrounding the Leas Cross Affair Mr Kenny asked Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to explain why so little was done until RTÉ's Prime Time programme "forced government to act".
Enda Kenny
Yesterday, the Taoiseach confirmed that a draft of a report critical of the Dublin nursing home had been received last autumn.
It is understood that the Hynes report advised health authorities last year that they should establish a high-level inspection team to examine the controversial home. This team would be separate to the group that had visited the facility previously.
Why then, Mr Kenny asked, did the Taoiseach tell the Dáil on June 1st last that the inspection regime was not the problem in the home. Mr Kenny also asked why the home had been apparently given advanced warning of the arrival of inspection teams.
"Why has your Government failed to act on a solemn promise you gave four years ago to initiate a new inspectorate for nursing homes?" Mr Kenny asked.
"You have severely dented the confidence of elderly people and people in general in this matter," he added.
In response, Mr Ahern conceded that "the system that was previously in place did not meet the needs of vulnerable patients."
"It is not a system that people can stand over", he added.
"What the Government is doing is bringing in the social services health inspectorate report on legislation that will deal with these particular issues.
"When there is an individual report of a health board or the Health Service Executive about each individual case, I don't think that it is Deputy Kenny's suggestion, but it is better for me to say it, people will think that every case of every report, every examination by everybody is brought to Government.
"It is not of course done so.
"As I understand it, this case, what happened was there were complaints made, or at least concerns expressed, I don't know how it actually happened back in August of 2003. The Health Board at the time, that was responsible for Leas Cross, initiated an examination in the autumn of 2003. Now, that somewhere along the way moved from an examination of the Peter McKenna case to looking also at the inspectorate of the health board.
Mr Ahern said the Hynes report, "subject to correction, but this is my information", had not been completed prior to his statement to the Dáil on June 1st last. He said it had only been completed by about June 8th last.
Mr Ahern said the Government was taking measures to improve the standard of nursing home care in the State but that "the vast, vast, vast majority" of residents were happy with their treatment.
