Mr. Mark O'Connor:

In terms of carers not being allowed to work, it is difficult to know. It has varied quite a bit from organisation to organisation. Obviously, there are public health guidelines in place and that severely restricted people in going into other people's houses, especially where there might have been somebody with an underlying condition. That has come through quite a bit in some of the anecdotal evidence that we have not included in the report. We have what is sometimes referred to as the sandwiched care generation where there might be a younger person with a disability in the house, a family member who has an acquired disability through age in the house and somebody in the middle. We have also got paid carers who come into the family home who are also going home to families where there are underlying conditions. A significant number of staff were redeployed to contract tracing, Covid-19 testing and supporting residential services and that led to much of the deficit in supports going into family homes. I suppose that is guessing at what a lot of it is but that is certainly what has been reported to us.