Mr. Jim Breslin:

I will come to the level of supports in a moment. Obviously, the Department and the HSE were working within constraints. In respect of the level of engagement, even the Nursing Homes Ireland representative who attended a meeting of this committee acknowledged that engagement. I have counted his comments in this regard and they number more than half a dozen. He told the committee:

It is fair to say we had very good engagement ... It is very important to put on the record that we engaged quite regularly with officials in the Department ... We had really good engagement ... We had very good engagement with officials ... I deal with officials in the Department on an ongoing basis ... We were not disappointed with the level of engagement.

That does not sound to me like officials were ignoring Nursing Homes Ireland but quite the reverse-----