It is a hallmark of this Government that it has no problem breaking promises it makes to the nation. We have had a litany of broken promises in the last period. We recall the promises made immediately after the "Prime Time" exposé of the happenings at Leas Cross nursing home, that there would be a new law within months, national standards and an independent inspectorate. All promises, all broken.

The situation in nursing homes is, in fact, worse. I could paper the walls of my office with the responses given by the Taoiseach and different Ministers about what would be done. We were told there would a national approach from the HSE, that it now has a robust inspection scheme and that it could assure us high standards were being enforced all round. All promises, all broken.

Today we learn from the reporter Fergal Bowers that a report in July of this year, 14 months after the Leas Cross programme, finds that dedicated inspection teams in the HSE are the exception and not the rule. Policies and procedures vary between, and even within, former health board areas and there is no consistency on whom teams report to. He makes the point that inspection teams can express serious concerns about a particular nursing home while, simultaneously, another arm of the HSE continues to place public patients in the same home.

How in the name of heavens can the Taoiseach stand over this? Four Ministers and Ministers of State have been involved in this: the former Minister, Deputy Martin, the current Minister, Deputy Harney, the current Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, and the former Minister of State, Deputy Callely. The Taoiseach refused to apportion responsibility to anyone, either members of the health boards or his Ministers. This is a national scandal.

When Deputy Perry exposed the illegal taking of payments from long-stay patients in public institutions, the Taoiseach was able to introduce legislation within two days to try to make it legal retrospectively so the money could be kept. Here we are, 14 months after the Leas Cross programme, with no legislation or inspection regime. The Taoiseach himself told the House that the inspection regime dealing with Leas Cross was of the highest standards.

The Government has broken the promise on the law and broken the promise on new standards and new inspections. How many more old men and women must spend their last days with weeping bed sores while this debacle continues on this Government's watch? None of the four Ministers or Ministers of State at the Department of Health and Children accept responsibility for this.

I repeat what I said yesterday about the Leas Cross report, when I promised there would be a detailed account of the case that came up over a year ago. Professor Desmond O'Neill has identified many deficiencies in the standard of care for older people in Leas Cross and the actions required to uphold those standards. Those deficiencies in care are deeply upsetting to the families of those in Leas Cross, particularly the relatives of those who died in Leas Cross. The Government understands their distress and we will lead with the legislative action and funding decisions to ensure high standards of care are upheld in all nursing homes, public and private. We know from Professor O'Neill's report and others that complaints and warnings were not given the attention they warranted, a matter of deep regret.

Professor O'Neill examined these issues for a year but did not engage in a blame exercise and he did not recommend disciplinary action. I am not in a position to do what the person who spent a year examining it did not do. Some people involved have challenged his assessment, as is their right. The report has been sent to the Garda Síochána to enable it to take any action it considers appropriate and to the Irish Medical Council for its consideration. Our priority is to prevent this from happening again. That, rather than talking about what has happened, other than to express our regret and say they should not have happened, is what we are doing.

We established the Health Service Executive to introduce standards across services in every county and region. Those standards meet the highest international levels possible. We are finalising the health Bill 2006, which will be published in this session and will create a robust system of inspections. It will provide for the first time for a statutory office, the office of the chief inspector of social services within the HIQA organisation, with specific responsibility for the registration and inspection of all nursing home places, public and private, because they must all be examined. He or she will inspect the homes under the regulations governing them and the standards set by the authority. The Bill will also strengthen and modernise the registration and de-registration process. New standards for long-term residential care facilities for older people have already been prepared.

It is not the case that all nursing homes are staffed by people who could not care less about patients. That is an appalling picture to paint.

Who said that? We did not say that.

The Taoiseach is twisting the facts. He is twisting the story.

It has been stated here on a number of occasions that is the position. I reject that accusation. Like every other politician I visit nursing homes and I do not see that, I see hard working people, working for the State or private organisations, doing their best day in and day out to look after old patients. I understand most elderly patients and their relatives are extremely happy with the service they get.

What does that have to do with the problem in Leas Cross?

The Taoiseach is twisting the story.

As always.

The Taoiseach should take some responsibility for the mess.

This is an attempt to shout down the facts in defence of those who work in nursing homes. The easiest thing to do is to come in here and apportion blame to everyone, to say nothing is right without ever standing up for those working every day to look after the elderly. That is an easy thing to do, the Opposition gets great marks for that.

Let the Taoiseach's Ministers take some responsibility.

The Minister for Health and Children has published the draft heads of the Bill for public consultation and we have had many submissions, none of which came from politicians. The existing nursing home regulations, under which the HSE carries out inspections of private nursing homes, were introduced in 1993 and they were amended. There are regulations, which will now be replaced by newer regulations to be made under the proposed legislation, with the purpose of strengthening the standards for residents in homes.

The Taoiseach's remark and his allegation in trying to apportion blame to every other Deputy in this House is scurrilous, completely unfounded and is beneath him as Taoiseach.

Hear, hear.

Everybody in this House knows there are nursing homes of the highest standards around the country——

Hear, hear.

——where people operate to the very highest levels of integrity. It is beneath the Taoiseach to make that comment. I am reading the report of the nursing homes inspections and registration working group which states clearly that there is no consistency and there is serious concern by one team about nursing homes and people being sent in there. If the Taoiseach was to show leadership in this matter, he would instruct the Minister for Health and Children to call together the committee dealing with health matters, Professor Drumm of the HSE, the leaders of these teams and Professor O'Neill to find out what is happening. The Minister for Finance will tomorrow produce his Estimates and he will have €600 million or €700 million on top of everything else for the capital programme. That is a long way from what is happening on the ground.

The Taoiseach rightly states that he wants to deal with standards across each county. He has correctly indicated that there are concerned citizens working in this area, and they cannot come forward because there is no whistleblower legislation. I have news for the Taoiseach, I have evidence from a person who will come forward. This is a case I have verified of a person in a nursing home being attended to by a professional nurse. My information states:

Now take the case of a lady with mental illness with discharging sores on her legs. She is also resident in a nursing home, and if I did not dress her legs every day in our centre she would come in every morning bare-legged, winter or summer, wearing slippers and the discharge running down her legs. After repeated calls to the nursing home, this lady came in one morning with nappy liners placed on open sores.

That is the standard the Taoiseach was talking about from some of these nursing homes. An inspection regime is needed to go in and sort this out. Where is the Minister for Health and Children this morning or the Ministers of State? Why are they not dealing with this?

They are gone into hiding.

This is a national scandal. I have verified this case. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform can smirk all he likes as he knows nothing about it.

The Deputy's time is concluded.

They do you no good.

The Deputy knows nothing about this.

The Deputy is a fraud.

The Deputy knows nothing about this and the Minister for Health and Children is not here.

The Deputy is an amateur detective.

Deputy Kenny, without interruption.

I will give the Minister this evidence and more. I will give it to the Taoiseach. This is a disgrace.

The Deputy's time is concluded.

It is a disgrace. The Government should be ashamed.

The Taoiseach spoke about having high standards across the country. The Government was able to bring in legislation within two days to take money back from people in long-stay public institutions. Why can it not introduce legislation or accept the patient safety authority, as proposed by the Labour Party and Fine Gael?

It is on the back of a postage stamp.

The Deputy's time is concluded.

It was planned on top of a beer mat.

It would deal with these issues comprehensively and to the highest standard, despite what the Tánaiste has said.

The Government is pathetic.

The HSE established the working group on nursing home inspections and registrations in July 2005, shortly after the organisation was set up. It completed the report in early summer. The existence of the HSE working group report has been a matter of public record for some time. Deputy Kenny is asking me to ask it to engage in a matter that it has finished. This has been referred to publicly on a number of occasions, including in previous Dáil debates when the Minister for Health and Children answered questions. I am answering the questions today and the Minister for Health and Children has answered questions.

Among the recommendations of the report was the recruitment of dedicated inspection teams throughout the country. These teams would have staff with nursing, medical and mental health experience. They would also have other professionals available to them. The inspection teams would all work from the same standardised checklist to ensure conformity across the system. In addition, all inspections would be unannounced.

The working group's approach now underpins the inspection process for private nursing homes. The issues raised in the report underline the reason for the Government's decision to put the social services inspectorate on a statutory basis within the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. It will be independent and will create a thorough and robust system of inspections.

When contracting with private nursing homes, the HSE does not send patients whose level of dependency is unsuited to the facility available. In a number of instances, the HSE may decide that a particular private home is unsuited to the needs of high dependency patients, but it does not mean the same home is unsuited to patients with lower levels of dependencies. The HSE has made important improvements to its nursing home inspections process since the working group report was completed in early summer. It has been working to standardise the reports and has engaged with the nursing home inspection teams and the private nursing home sectors.

With the greatest respect for Deputy Kenny, what he has asked me to do has already been done. The legislation——

Call in the Minister.

Who is taking responsibility?

Call in the HSE today.

Allow the Taoiseach to speak.

The legislation is necessary, I accept that.

Just do it.

Bring it in so.

The legislation will be before this House and I hope Members help to get it through.

That was said last Christmas.

It will provide for the first time for a statutory office, an office for the chief inspector of social services with specific responsibilities for registration and inspection in all nursing home places.

New standards for long-term residential care facilities for older people have been prepared. I am not saying everything is up to 100% in every single place in the country. If it was, we would not have had the working group report, we would not be bringing in legislation and we would not have had Professor O'Neill's report. We have put enormous resources into the HSE and we are putting legislation in place in this area. The last legislation in 1993, by and large, covered most of this ground. It is time to improve it now as time has moved on, although it is a relatively recent Act.

I dislike the effort — it is the easiest thing in the world to do — to find something somewhere and paint it as if it is the practice everywhere.

The Taoiseach paints it all.

What about that woman?

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

The Deputies' remarks are a disservice to the people.

The Taoiseach's head is in the sand.

I am seeking——

The Taoiseach is doing nothing.

She deserves better.

Allow the Taoiseach to speak without interruption.

I am answering one question and there are 25 Deputies shouting at me. I do not know why they will not let me answer. I listened to Deputy Kenny but the Deputies do not want me to answer because they know we are trying extremely hard to improve these issues. They know there are people in nursing homes today who are working very hard. They know where there are indiscretions and that some practices are not up to standard, and we try to deal with them to the best of our ability. The HSE is doing its utmost to resolve these issues, as are we. I will not jump up and blame somebody somewhere who perhaps was not up to the same standard.

The Taoiseach will not take the blame.

Pontius Pilate had nothing on the Taoiseach.

It is grand for me to take the blame. Is it all about blaming somebody? Is it not about trying to make matters better for the future?

Hear, hear.

It is about political blame.

The Government should do something about it. It has had nine years to do so.

Is the Deputy coming back to us?