Dr. Tony Holohan:

I do not recall ever hearing of a complaint regarding the sort of thing that the Deputy indicated, without putting words in his mouth, such as a patient's experience of care provided by a GP. I am not suggesting that the Deputy is trying to take us to this territory. If the complaint relates to overexposure, it is difficult for patients to have any knowledge of exposure and exposure levels. They put trust in it. My radiology colleagues will be able to speak on that in a much more informed way. The challenge in healthcare is often the basis on which patients complain if they are not really able to have a means to understand the nature of the service and the quality thereof. It can sometimes, but not always, be a useful guide about quality or such.

I take the Deputy's point on HIQA that there has been, on occasion, criticism relating to standards and so on. HIQA will be empowered to be the regulatory body. It is doing a substantial amount of work. We have given substantial new resources to HIQA in the current year to enable it to build its capacity to start the work on developing standards and the competence and capacity to roll this out. Some of the people it has been able to take on from the formal healthcare system are people with substantial capacity, ability, knowledge and so on. We have no basis for this point to express, as a Department, anything other than full confidence in its capacity as an organisation to take on this function.

I take Senator Colm Burke's point about insurance. Deputy Durkan asked the question of us and for clarity, I have never attended a chiropractor. It never entered my head but, luckily, as I understand the services they offer, I have never had the need to have any recourse to avail of such services.