Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

One of the issues that came up in the consultation was the issue of direct employment. I ask Ms Larthwell to expand on the concerns in respect of direct employment. As has already been outlined by other contributors, in some cases people have a close relationship with their care giver that does not necessarily fit into the natural State-led regulatory environment. There might be a situation where the existence of direct employment might create a two-tier system where that is not regulated and there is no discretion or space within the regulations to bring that in. Is that a concern?