Mr. Patrick Lynch:

I am aware from previous appearances that this is an area of interest to the committee. In most cases, issues around reviews arise for two reasons. The two things required from a review are, first, to establish if there are any underlying safety issues in a particular service which might impact on other people and, second, to give answers to the individuals concerned who may have been impacted upon or, as in some instances, harmed as a result of an incident. We have a process in place with a 120-day target. We are measuring that. We will be producing a report shortly which, for the first time, will begin to give us more data in what is happening across the system. This will be the first time we will ever have that level of detail. We are signalling to people that in the midst of a process, where timeliness is important, there can be issues of delay that we are trying to overcome . However, that is no excuse for a failure to communicate and involve people in the process the whole way through. That is an area of focus. Second, in terms of reviews - this will apply to the disability services initially - we are establishing a national independent review panel that will be modelled on the panel that is in place in Tusla. That panel, which will deal with incidents of a very serious nature, will be recruited through the Public Appointments Service and will be completely independent and report to the risk committee of the HSE. The planning for it is already in place and we hope it will be established in 2016. It is a significant area of focus for the HSE at present.