Ms Mary Dunnion:

I thank Deputy Rabbitte. We can take no action. HIQA and the directorate of regulation has several different functions but in the context of children and children's services, we monitor. In monitoring, we monitor against nationally mandated standards, we report our findings, we can escalate the risk within the context of the service provider and to Tusla and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs but we have absolutely no enforcement powers in that context. We report and publish our findings and we escalate risk appropriately. If it is an immediate risk, we will always ensure that it has been addressed because it has been escalated immediately. However, the responsibility of the provider is to give us an action plan outlining what it intends to do. We can re-monitor but we do not have any enforcement powers.