Mr. Phelim Quinn:

It would have looked at levels of governance, so would have looked at both. Our concerns were identified as concerns in risk management at local and regional level, so we would have needed to make an assessment of risk across all levels of the HSE and its impact on the safety of services at local level.

The Deputy asked about political commitment. We had made a series of recommendations previously, both to the HSE and the Department. In regard to our call for political commitment to the recommendations we make, this is linked to the questions put to us by Deputy Ó Caoláin. We reported previously to this committee and in previous investigations that at times we have found the recommendations made by HIQA have not been implemented. If we were to look at the range of recommendations across the seven investigations we have conducted, there are still significant deficits in the uptake and implementation of those recommendations. When it comes to the "compellability" of those recommendations, the current legislation on our monitoring and investigation function does not provide us with "compellability". However, if the plans in regard to health care licensing come to fruition, they would provide some form of enforcement framework that would be available to us.

I will now pass over to my colleague to respond to a number of Deputy Kelleher's questions on accountability and the CMO report.