Mr. Paul Lemass:

I will undertake to follow up on that.

On the question of inspections, there is a provision that inspection reports would be shared, as appropriate. It is not that they would be shared unnecessarily, but, for example, if it was felt that one of the other agencies needed to know what was in the contents of an inspection report, they would share that report, and that is provided for. As regards the inspectors and where they come from, it would be similar to the RTA legislation, where some might have come from within the staff of the organisation and where it may have been necessary to recruit some. I would not have seen them coming from the local authority unless there was a secondment or something. It would be a recruitment exercise.

On the resources of the office, the office currently has in the order of 16 staff. Its fund is voted through the Housing Agency, so it is provided for through that. The regulator is satisfied that she has sufficient funding and headroom to grow in the immediate term. It is in quite good shape in that regard.

The organisation would be subject to FOI in the normal way. Likewise with parliamentary questions tabled, we would answer them. However, there is a provision where Members of the Oireachtas can raise queries directly with individual State bodies, and I would expect that the AHB regulator would fall under that. I think a direct line for those kinds of issues could be provided. The regulator would appear before this committee in the normal manner.