Dr. Tracey Cooper:

I would like to comment further on disability services. Deputy Kelleher asked about our stakeholder engagement when we were developing our approach. It is important for us to set standards which are, first and foremost, about the people receiving the services. The success of outcomes must be seen through their eyes. When developing the standards, we engaged in an extensive process with people receiving services, including adults and children with physical and intellectual disabilities. Deputy Ó Caoláin is correct that this applies equally to groups of people and providers. We also engaged with groups of parents of adult children with disabilities and the parents of children with disabilities. Of most concern to parents of adult children with disabilities is that they might die before their adult children. We spent a great deal of time getting people's views. We had an advisory group of providers, voluntary representative bodies and people who received and used the services. They were all involved up to the final stage and we hope we have rounded off by demonstrating that it is very much about the person. Other sets of standards with which members may be familiar, including in respect of older persons, are of a different style because the successful outcomes are different. I hope we have engaged fully, which is fundamental to us.

Senator van Turnhout has asked how long we take to inspect all services. The sector for people with disabilities has a different demographic than the long-term care sector.

It is a different provider basis as well. When we start the function, hopefully in October, there is a three-year timeline in the health Act by which time every centre must be either registered or not, as the case may be. We obviously cannot hit the ground running and go to all of those centres. For clarity, there are 1,700 places or facilities but they will convert to approximately 1,300 designated centres. There could be a campus with a number of places for single people. Obviously, we will not go everywhere in the first day.

We have a very robust process to assess risk. People send in concerns to us that are unsolicited. We also require mandatory information that comes to us on an ad hocnotification, if there is an allegation of abuse, for example, or periodically, where we seek certain information all the time. We also have engagement with colleagues and providers in the system. We have met with providers on many occasions to get people's gauge. We will start to synthesise the intelligence that we have to focus on a risk-based approach. If we have more concerns about a centre we are more likely to go there more frequently and sooner than if we have less concerns about a centre. All of that must kick in. Obviously, we would like to be a position over the coming months to get to as many centres as possible, particularly the ones where we have concerns. We will publish all of those reports.

I believe I have answered all the questions.