Mr. Tony O'Brien:

HIQA has a prescribed set of obligations. It is in the regulatory and inspection space and carries out reviews and makes recommendations. It is not seeking to occupy the position of confidential recipient. Essentially, we are seeking to provide an additional channel for people to do the right thing if they feel they can do so. At one level, we can talk about bringing in undercover investigators. There are 12,000 staff working in the social care sector. I want the vast majority of them to be our undercover investigators, empowered without fear of a comeback and report anything they believe requires further investigation. We could then use the techniques about which I spoke, whether it be placing other staff or using surveillance techniques in accordance with the law and carrying out the appropriate investigations, in order that we could do two things. One is to create a very simple realisation: there can no longer be an assumption that once the door is closed, it is safe to do things people know they should not be doing and that there is a very real prospect of being caught, which will have a deterrence effect. The notion that other staff have been more empowered to challenge, even if they must do so through a confidential informant, will change behaviour. These are interim measures; we are really seeking to change culture, but we know that this takes time. The culture appears to be part of the legacy of the way we used to do certain things in having institutions with high walls and so on. It will not be easy or quick to eradicate these thought processes from the minds of some; therefore, we will have to do some things that typically one would not want to do in order to provide additional surety. That is what this process is about. The audit team mentioned will have such resources as are necessary and the summits are helping us to shape what level of resources it requires.