Ms Siobhán McArdle:

The role of regulators is to come in and inspect when there are regulations applying to services. However, there are only a very small number of services in the State for which there are regulations, and they are the approved inpatient centres and nursing homes for older persons. However, there are standards, called the Safer Better Healthcare standards, which apply across the board to healthcare facilities where health and social care services are provided. HIQA has set out those standards, and the services that provide healthcare services are obliged to ensure they are complying with them, along with things like their health and safety standards.