Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To be fair to the witnesses, and I know we are talking about them in front of them, they probably presumed that we knew but I would say the majority of Deputies do not know what HIQA does.

With regard to my first question, my colleague, Deputy MacSharry, talked about staffing and Mr. Quinn outlined that HIQA has gone from a staff number of 192 to 209. I know about its plans because it has told me about them. The real issue is that if HIQA ended up in charge of the whole parcel of issues in health care, this country probably would not have the budget to fund the changes it would recommend. That is the reason there is a go-slow as regards the overall remit of pushing HIQA. Somebody has to say it; that is reality. That is the reason powers are limited in certain areas. If it were to move into, say, the whole parcel, as an agency it would probably treble in size.