Ms Catherine Keogh:

I will take the second one first, which is the easier question. No, we have not been invited, similar to what Mr. Ginley said, unless something has come in during very recent days. We were asked for the submission, but that was it. It is important to Fórsa that it would be invited to such a forum. We have established good working set-ups now within the HSE where the people who are involved in the service are now finally getting to have an input into how current service delivery is planned. However, and we have said this repeatedly to the HSE, it makes no sense to come back to the workers after one has designed the system. It is necessary to talk to the workers when one is designing the system to make sure it is future-proofed and it starts off working well, rather than us pointing out the flaws after the event because nobody asked us.

With regard to representation, from a Fórsa perspective we represent the managers of the system, 99% of which are based in the public sector. We would not have the issues that our colleagues, Mr. Ginley and Ms Carberry, reference. It is key to remember as well that while much of the hours are provided by the for-profit sector, and we referred to this in our submission, that is still funded by the public purse.

Our home support resource managers co-ordinate both the 8 million direct hours and the 10 million purchased hours. We referred to direct employment. From Fórsa's perspective, direct employment is the way to go to ensure that this service is standardised and fit for purpose.