Mr. Ger Deering:

As I mentioned, at the outset of some of our complaints, nursing homes did not realise that they came within our remit. Nursing homes are an unusual case in the sense that they are generally privately owned. I believe there is only one nursing home that does not come under our remit and that is because it does not receive State funding. The rest of the nursing homes come under our remit because, as we know, the vast majority of people, or a great many of people in those nursing homes, are funded by the State. The first job we had to do was to inform the nursing homes that they actually come within our remit. As I mentioned, we have done webinars with the nursing home owners. We have also worked with Nursing Homes Ireland to make it aware that nursing homes come within our remit.

In regard to the number of complaints, I will ask Ms Hanrahan if she knows how many we had against nursing homes.