Mr. Sean Egan:

On the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023, the Deputy will be familiar with the legislation in light of the discussions at this committee in respect of it. At the back of the legislation, there are a number of defined incidents that will need to be notified to HIQA under law within seven days of them occurring. The Act will require services across both the public and private sectors to notify us and it is an offence for that not to be notified. It will be a very significant additional improvement and development within the system in terms of ensuring candour in respect of making sure anything that needs to be put into the public domain is in the public domain, and that there is an appropriate follow-up in which everyone can have trust. The legislation that will be commenced relatively soon, following work from this committee and others to progress it to this point, will be an additional development in this regard and certainly as an organisation we welcome that.