Ms Mo Flynn:

Deputy Kelleher spoke about Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, and the relationship with the HSE. This situation on pay has been totally exacerbated within that context. Indeed we have HIQA come in to our establishments and rightly look at the quality and standards of service that is being delivered. In many of the services around the State HIQA raises valid issues regarding the continuity of staff in the context of the quality of care planning and the quality of interaction between people.

Where we must move to a position whereby services are staffed on an ongoing basis by agency or release staff because we cannot have continuity, they raise concerns about the viability of that as a model into the future. They may accept that release staff must be brought in for holiday cover, but when they see significant numbers of relief or agency staff regularly incorporated into a staff rota, they find that unacceptable and raise serious questions as to whether one's registration can be sustained. These are the issues coming up for every service provider throughout the country. This relates to the fact that while we can talk to the HSE about issues of capital costs that may need to be met within a residential service, those costs arising from having to change staff continually because of turnover are not being addressed because they are fundamentally related to the issue of pay. Senator Dolan raised the question why this has happened-----