Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody for their time today. The briefing documents were very helpful and I thank the witnesses for them. The Chairman might give me some latitude in speaking about a particular cohort as it might follow some of Deputy Shortall's questions. As I try to get to grips with what we are proposing, it is useful for me to think of this in terms of particular cohorts.

One cohort comprises people in accommodation for the homeless. I am trying to get my bearings on how private providers interact in this process. We have spoken a little about private nursing homes and the difficulty with this kind of legislation in getting into people's homes. What is the understanding of access for safeguarding and protection that social work teams would have where there are privatised services? Never mind staff trained for social work, as some of these staff may not even have Garda vetting.