Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is stated that the HSE is in breach of its own policy. Why have a policy if it is going to be breached? The other question I wanted to ask concerns standards. Are there best practice standards? Is there a national policy on pre-hospital care? Who put these standards in place and who oversees them? The witnesses might tell us more about the pre-hospital care council - who they are and what their function is. Whom do they oversee and do they have a role in ensuring people have the requisite qualifications? We spoke about call-takers and dispatchers being licensed, yet staff members said they felt they did not have those skills in interview with HIQA. Other than HIQA, who is the watchdog for the profession? Who makes sure that standards are being met?