Ms Angela Fitzgerald:

The decisions on the continuation of that are made without us. What I can tell the Deputy is how it is being deployed. As a result of Covid, we engaged with the Department on specific requirements that would enhance our regulatory role coming out of Covid. One of those was in relation to infection. As was set out in the more detailed opening statement, we were mandated to do two inspections over a three-year period. The Covid expert panel funding allowed us to increase that to one inspection a year. In practice, about 40% of our nursing homes are inspected at least twice and many of them far more frequently. It gave a much more stable funding base to allow us to extend our regulatory lens in those areas.

The other piece that was funded is that there was a request to look at extending the care experience programme, which is a collaboration between three organisations. We looked at the end-of-life survey which was very relevant in the context of Covid. That survey is funded from that funding to us.