Government response too little, too late

The virulent political outrage generated by the Prime Time revelations serves to create the illusion that it was the first time politicians on either side of the Dáil were made aware of the horrific conditions in some of the nursing homes in this country.

That is patently not so.

Both the Government and opposition parties were more than aware of the fact that because the sector is largely unsupervised, there are maverick nursing home owners who are not just indifferent to the health of their patients, but are actually reckless in their treatment of them.