Ms Mary Dunnion:

If one opened a nursing home today, one would apply to HIQA for in order to register it. One would go through administration regulations, which refer to forms and so on, and then the welfare regulations, which relate to what one must provide for residents living in the home. Thereafter, the regulation director, through HIQA, would inspect that service. If the service is compliant with the regulations, which are nationally mandated, then the service is compliant. That is where the strength of regulation comes in because if residents, who are the most vulnerable people, do not receive the service to the level they ought to, then we have powers under the regulation. Those powers can range from warning the provider or curtailing the number of admissions until the provider has improved the service. It can go as far as the cancellation of a registration.

In the areas of health care and children, none of those powers exist in regulation. Our powers there are in monitoring the services. We report our findings to the accountable person, namely, the provider of the service and its funders.