Ms Laura Casey:

The data to be collected will be developed further and laid out in regulations. The first point I will make on nursing homes, in particular, is that very little data are currently in existence at a national level. The recommendation from the expert panel was precisely to that point. While that has always been the case, a real light was shone on it during the Covid-19 pandemic. Very little data are currently collected at a national level. We are beginning to have some engagement, and have had some already, with stakeholders, HIQA and the HSE on what data will be useful in policymaking and service planning, in addition to better informing prospective residents and families when they are choosing a nursing home. Initial consultation has begun on that.

I do not want to be definitive but to give some examples, at present there is no national database that gives an idea of resident profile within the nursing home sector. We have very little data on staffing within the sector or around bed occupancy levels. Some of the data are quite baseline, to be honest. In developing a new system of data capture, we need to be conscious of proportionality and not overly burdening a system. We will pay very close attention to what data can make a difference to policymaking and service planning at a national level.