Ms Mary Dunnion:

Deputy Connolly alluded to HIQA's spectrum of activities. A total of 13 people work in the health care team. When we look at regulation, health care is not a regulated service. We only have a monitoring function in respect of regulation. Deputy Connolly is correct in alluding to Tallaght. We made recommendations there and I was on the investigation team. We have no powers under the Health Act, nor does the health care team, to do anything in the context of implementation. We are not reneging on our responsibility; the responsibility for service provision lies with those who fund and deliver the service. As a result of the fact that the health care team is so small, we take what would be considered a risk in the national context in respect of services. For example, as Mr. Quinn alluded to in his opening remarks, for this year we looked at medicines management and antimicrobial stewardship because we would see - and the evidence supports this - that the proper use of antibiotics and driving that improvement in health care is a significant matter behind which we can put our weight and achieve good outcomes. The reports that we have published show that change.

The Deputy is correct about a team of that number of staff and without any powers holding service providers to account. It is different in the context of designated and older persons because those are regulated services. It is two prongs within the -----