Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was my first question. I have gone on a little and I apologise for that. Whose job is it to govern the quality and the delivery of the service? I note in her paper on the quality issues, Dr. McCarthy of the Disability Federation of Ireland said that it was not the job of the HSE to do that. She also said that the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA has a paper exploring the regulation of health and social care services. Whose job is it to oversee, monitor and regulate the quality?

In the context of the Department of Health, with the move away from congregated settings, we all want to see community based settings, and people living independently. Senator Dolan used the word rationing, with which I do not agree. If there is an inadequacy in the service and if no meaningful value is being given to the person, how we can change that for the betterment of person, notwithstanding and accepting that we do not have a rainbow with a crock of gold at the end of it?