I do not know where to start in discussing last night. On a personal note, because I have a son who often uses respite services in a residential unit, I felt it very deeply, as did many of the parents who contacted me last night. It is sickening to think that our most vulnerable people could be treated like that, left 15 hours without food, force-fed, physically hit, and mentally abused, with staff refusing to clean them and denying them their basic human rights. I was sickened last night and ashamed that even today we are paying lip service to this issue.

I have thought long and hard about this all night and I am tabling an amendment to the Order of Business that we have the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, come to the House today to discuss what has happened. This is far too serious to sweep it under the carpet and just say that we will have an inquiry into it. We need a totally independent inquiry, free from all those who are involved in social care. We cannot leave this until after Christmas. We cannot wait another month to discuss it again. This must be discussed today.

It was said last night that under the HIQA report less than 2% of centres concerned actually complied with regulations. That is abysmal. It was reported that 3,000 people were in residential care. There are more like 8,000 people, if one takes into account the people who are in and out of those, or who are living in smaller community settings. That could have happened anywhere. I asked last week that we have a debate on this immediately after "Prime Time" last night, because I knew what was coming from what I was dealing with, from people contacting me with complaints who have nowhere else to go. HIQA will not deal with individual reports. We must examine this issue seriously. I asked yesterday again that this action be taken. I have thought long and hard about this. This is not a rash move. I came into the Seanad-----

Can Senator Moran clarify the amendment?

I call for the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, to come to the House to discuss the "Prime Time" programme last night, to tell us what will happen and to have an independent inquiry into what happened. I came to the Seanad three years ago-----

The Senator is over time.

-----saying that I would do something for disability. I could not walk out of here today and say I was doing the job if I was not calling for this today.

It is important that the facts of the report last night are fully investigated. One of the things the report highlights is the lack of checks and balances. That is what we need in every system. It appears not only that the facility is falling down in the provision of services and how it treats the people it is appointed to care for, but also that the checks and balances are not working. That is a very serious issue. Why was this not flagged from a medical point of view? How come it did not show up in the HIQA inspection? Why are the checks and balances not working? That is one of the things that a report or an investigation into this matter must identify. What checks and balances need to be put in place? I agree with Senator O'Donovan when he speaks about acting as a solicitor. I have come across some very similar cases. It is a huge concern. I came across people who would have looked after their own child for 50 or 60 years and can no longer deal with it. Their big worry is who will look after that child with a disability once they are gone. It is a huge concern for parents and it is important that we can give reassurance that there are proper facilities, that all the care they require is there, but also that the checks and balances are there.

I also support Senator O'Donovan's point about the NCT test and the delays. I too received texts yesterday from Cork, where there is a huge delay in providing inspections and reports. It is something that must be dealt with. There is no point in implementing legislation and then finding that people cannot comply with it because the people offering the service to carry out these tests are not able to give that service within a reasonable period.

I agree with him that this problem needs to be resolved before the legislation is put in place. Otherwise, it will impose penalties on people who have no control over it which is wrong. This is something we need to look at.

Like so many of my colleagues here today I want to express my absolute horror at what happened at Áras Attracta in County Mayo. I am shocked, horrified and embarrassed at what I watched on "Prime Time" last night. I commend Paul Maguire and his investigation team from "Prime Time" on exposing this most shocking of human rights abuses of elderly and vulnerable people. I fully expect that legal prosecutions will follow for those staff members who physically assaulted, verbally threatened, punched, dragged, kicked and beat the service users in Áras Attracta. The buck should not stop there. It is incumbent on State agencies to provide a safe environment for people who need protection over and above the norm. Last night's programme highlighted the gaping hole in legislation to protect the elderly and most vulnerable in society. There is no doubt these people require extra protection and we must now act to provide it.

Perpetrators of the kind of abuse that we witnessed on "Prime Time" last night act from a position of control and power because they know full well that the service users in Áras Attracta are incapable of climbing into a witness box in a court which means they cannot give evidence about their own maltreatment. The people who mistreated the residents of Áras Attracta know they will never be prosecuted for their actions, omissions and behaviour because there is no third party whistleblower. It is very clear that we need to immediately move to address this issue. I propose the establishment of a cross-party emergency committee to examine the treatment of the elderly and vulnerable residents in all homes in Ireland. We should also discuss increasing penalties for anyone who abuses, hurts or maims the people we should be protecting. At the very least our vulnerable and elderly are entitled to protection and if we do not do this, then what kind of a democracy are we left with?

I hope Senator Higgins is wrong when she says that nobody can be prosecuted as a result of what we saw on television last night. The people who ill treated the residents and perpetrated the type of crimes we saw last night should face the full rigour of the law.

It is particularly sad that we, as a people, do not seem to have learned from the lessons of Leas Cross and other cases of institutional abuse that we have seen over the years. Today is international human rights day and I hope that last night's programme will act as a wake-up call for us to ensure what happened in Áras Attracta will never be allowed to happen here again. It is worrying that we cannot give an assurance to people who have vulnerable relatives in various care homes and institutions in this State that such abuse does not happen in other places. A thorough investigation is required to ensure that proper procedures and proper care is administered. The programme called into question the management of the Áras Attracta facility and its recruitment process needs to be look at as well. How could the people, who behaved in the way we saw on television last night, have gotten through a recruitment process and be deemed suitable to work in a care institution that looks after the most vulnerable people?

Finally, I wish to comment on the NCT situation that has been raised by Senators O'Donovan and Colm Burke. There is a simple solution to the problem. If somebody has applied for an NCT and received written confirmation of a date for a test, however far forward it might be, then it should be deemed evidence that they are in the process of having their NCT carried out and that it is not their fault that the certificate is not on display. This is an administrative matter which could be simply resolved and thus would avoid people incurring penalty points, as has been outlined in the House.

The vast majority of Members who have spoken this morning have spoken on the Áras Attracta case which we saw on our television screens last evening. Everybody who saw the programme was shocked. It is totally unacceptable that vulnerable people should be treated in such a cruel and insensitive way. There is an ongoing inquiry and due process must apply. However, I hope that appropriate sanctions are put in place that reflect the seriousness of the situation and what we saw and witnessed on our screens last evening.

An amendment to the Order of Business has been tabled which calls for the relevant Minister to attend. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Lynch, is the appropriate Minister to deal with this matter. I will try to have her attend. I hope that she will be in a position to confirm that she will be here today from 7 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. I cannot amend the Order of Business until such time as she confirms a specific time.