Mr. Phelim Quinn:

Yes, I suppose, is the short answer. What we have determined over the course of the past 12 years is that our powers of enforcement in the main relate to the imposition of conditions on the registration of registered providers and-or up to cancellation of registration. Obviously, part of the enforcement armoury includes prosecution, but used always as a last resort. Within our paper on regulatory reform, we have sought an amendment to the enforcement powers of HIQA to try to bring about some form of graduated approach to improvement within registered providers, for example, that we would be enabled to serve on a non-compliant provider an improvement notice or a non-compliance notice that would provide a staged approach to the enforcement powers that we currently have. Obviously, we work on an ongoing basis with providers at the point of inspection as well, seeking a positive and constructive response to some of the recommendations that would make.