Ms Rosemary Keogh:

I am happy to answer that question. When we speak about coercive behaviour - the Acting Chairman summed it up well - in the service level agreement process the HSE requires all organisations to sign service level agreements by 28 February each year.

There was a change in that practice, I think it was introduced around 2015 or 2016, where organisations were told that if they had not signed by 28 February or if they had signed the service arrangements but had declared deficits, they would be faced with a withholding of 20% of funding for those services until such time as they signed the service arrangements with no deficits. I am CEO of the Irish Wheelchair Association and as recently as yesterday, we received a letter from the HSE advising us that because we had shown deficits in our service arrangements for this year that accurately reflect the cost of delivering those services, we will now be faced with a withholding of 20% of funding. If that does not demonstrate coercion, then I do not know what does.