Leas Cross report - Government promise has hollow ring

There is a hollow ring to the belated promise by Health Minister Mary Harney that new legislation would set up a strict inspection regime for nursing homes so a Leas Cross scandal can never again happen.

In a statement before the controversial report on that home was published, she said she believed that Leas Cross was an exception.

Yet, directly contradicting that belief, the independent report by Professor Des O’Neill concluded that it would be a major error to presume the deficits identified in Leas Cross represented an isolated incident.