The Minister for Health, Mary Harney has announced the setting up of a Commission of Investigation to examine matters relating to the management, operation and supervision of Leas Cross Nursing Home in Dublin.
The commission, under the chair of Senior Counsel Derry O'Donovan, will also examine complaints made by or on behalf of residents of the home and the transfer of residents from medical and residential care facilities to the home.
It will report to the minister within 12 months from when it commences its work.
The minister said she was conscious of the gravity of the issues raised by previous reviews into Leas Cross Nursing Home and the public concern following these reviews.
The commission will examine the role and responses of relevant parties into the management, operation and supervision of the home.
Fine Gael's Fergus O'Dowd has welcomed the development.
Deputy O'Dowd said that while welcome the establishment of the commission was long overdue given the disturbing conditions at the home that had emerged almost two years ago in RTÉ’s Prime Time expose.
'The public outrage and concern which resulted from the treatment of elderly people exposed on the Prime Time programme seems to have finally filtered through to the Government,' he said.
