Mr. Seán Moynihan:

No, I think the regulation is really interesting. The tradition in Ireland is that something comes in and we regulate it afterwards. Home care is an example of regulation coming in later. That makes it much more difficult. It takes longer, people have to be brought on the journey and the regulation has to be retrospectively applied. Whatever we do on regulation, we should do now before it is all-pervasive. Once something is in the system, retrospectively applying regulation is much harder, it takes much longer, it is always the older person or the consumer who loses out and ultimately there is a huge lag. This is a really difficult journey for everybody. If we take the example of the HSE in healthcare, there is probably a person coming in every day with a new piece of software or a new device that is the answer to everything. There are questions about how that can be procured and installed and how people can be trained on it. These practical questions are really quite difficult. Ultimately, it will come from these types of engagements.

It will come from regulation and from the direction the committee sets. That will make it safe for us all to be in this conversation on how we do it ethically.

On informed consent, when we are signing up somebody to use any technology we use or even onto our management information systems, consent is required and part of the training for our staff is to consider if the older person is in a position to give informed consent at that time, in that place. This is something that needs to be unpacked.