Mr. Phelim Quinn:

I will address Deputy Madigan's question on the legislation in the first instance. She asked about the powers HIQA has and what powers other statutory bodies in Ireland have. HIQA has very specific powers under the office of the chief inspector. These powers span a range of issues, including the registration and inspection of a range of services and the implementation or application of enforcement measures, up to the cancellation of registration and-or the prosecution of individuals for breaches in regulation. In some ways there is a safeguarding element in this suite of powers. However, in Ireland we do not have a similar statutory suite of powers which enable a statutory body, such as a social services unit, to work with the Garda to identify when vulnerable adult abuse has happened, what constitutes vulnerable adult abuse and what process is brought to bear when abuse is being investigated. We have been working with the national safeguarding committee to try to develop a framework to describe the type of legislation required for the protection of vulnerable adults and people who might be exploited. This encompasses not only people in receipt of services but people in civil society. One of the major debates the national safeguarding committee had was on the issue of financial abuse. Sometimes this occurs in the context of a family or someone providing informal care to an individual. The legislation we are describing extends beyond care service provision and into wider civil society. A question was also asked about health technology assessments, and I will ask Dr. Ryan, our technology director, to address it. This also relates to the basket of services.