Ms Laura Casey:

I do not have that data to hand. We would need to get that data from HIQA. Previously, on average, a centre would have been inspected once every 18 months. HIQA has stated that ideally, on average, it would like to inspect a centre once a year. It is close to achieving that with the additional resource. I think this year already, it has done up on 500 inspections. As the Deputy mentioned, those inspections can differ.

They can be part of routine registration inspections that can arise for particular reasons, if issues have been raised. They also do thematic-type inspections which are more proactive in looking at particular areas. We can safely say the level of inspection has increased in recent years with the additional resources that have been given to HIQA.