Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will note that and keep it under control. We will be coming to the issue of financial reporting in the public service separately in a few minutes. The next item is correspondence No. 866B from Mr. Marty Whelan of HIQA providing follow-up information to the committee arising from the meeting on 28 September. Matters covered include risk profiling in HIQA and the lease for HIQA's office in Smithfield. We will note and publish that correspondence.

The next item of correspondence is No. 875B, dated 7 November. This is also from Mr. Marty Whelan of HIQA providing a note on interactions between Mr. Brian McEnery on the establishment of Letsbuyhealthcare scheme as a partner in BDO and a copy of the invitation of Nursing Homes Ireland to Mr. Brian McEnery to attend a Nursing Homes Ireland meeting on October 2015, as requested at the committee meeting on 19 October 2017. We will note and publish that. For the record, we discussed yesterday in private session correspondence that the committee received, namely, the note of the meeting from Eversheds to Nursing Homes Ireland. The committee decided in private session that it will not be circulating that document and will not be referring to it in public session because the owner of that document, Nursing Homes Ireland, has claimed legal privilege. By and large, however, the contents of that document are already in the public arena and have been well publicised. Any discussion we will have will be in relation to the information that is already in the public arena but not in relation to that specific document.

The next item is No. 879B, dated 7 November 2017, from Mr. Marty Whelan of HIQA providing a note on the appeals mechanism for bodies which do not accept HIQA decisions. This is important given the issues raised by a particular nursing home discussed at our meeting two weeks ago. HIQA also includes an explanatory note, as requested, on the role and function of the chief inspector and delegation of that function. This is an issue to which we will return. We received correspondence from a particular nursing home last week and further information from that nursing home is on its way to us. We will consider that information when we receive it.