The Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, has told the Dáil that the Health Service Executive (HSE) was 'duped' about conditions at the Leas Cross nursing home.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern. He said the HSE had made several attempts to address issues at the home but that they had been misled by the management.
Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Mr Ahern said the HSE had made several attempts to address issues at the home but that they had been misled by the management at the home.
"They believed that they were making progress in getting these rectified," he said. "They now believe that they were duped. That is their position and that is what they've said to me."
The Taoiseach also said that legislation regarding inspections would not be before the Dáil until the autumn.
Meanwhile, a new director of nursing and senior nursing staff are to start work at the home today in an attempt to improve standards following allegations of sub-standard care were made in a television documentary on Monday.
The move to appoint new staff came after RTÉ's Prime Time Investigatesshowed pictures of procedures leading to serious bed sores and elderly residents being kept in soiled diapers and bed linen. The new director of nursing has been named as Mary Flanagan.
The HSE, which visited patients in the home yesterday, said the new staff would be in place this morning and an independent inquiry would take place. It is also putting in place at the home a "clinical governance steering committee", representative of residents and independent experts.
Minister for Health Mary Harney apologised to the Leas Cross nursing home residents last night and said substandard care in the home should have been picked up.
The Minister of State with responsibility for older people, Seán Power, said he would ask the Garda to investigate the allegations made in the programme. "I think some of what we witnessed last night on television was horrific and I will be asking the gardaí to investigate it," he told reporters in Dublin.
Furthermore, he said, it was "quite obvious" an independent nursing homes inspectorate was necessary and legislation underpinning it was being drafted. He hoped the inspectorate would be in place before the end of the year.
Up to now, private nursing homes are inspected by the HSE and while they are supposed to be inspected twice a year, this has not happened. There is no inspectorate for publicly-funded nursing homes.