Dr. Tony Holohan:

That would be would be the patient safety Bill into which we were introducing them. I am certainly not going to sit here and rule that out. We can consider that. We are bringing forward two items of legislation in tandem. The interim measure was proposed to simply recognise the length of time it will take to enact, develop the regulations, have them properly implemented and have the licensing system operating. As the Deputy has correctly said, we are trying to go in that direction, so we are open to seeing if there is anything we can do in terms of swap over of things that are part of a common direction of travel.

It is probably worth pointing out - I concede this is not an answer to the question asked by the Deputy - that in terms of enforcement, the power of publication has proven very effective. If I listed the various different reports HIQA has carried out in the health sector space, which have been far fewer than those in the social care space, very significant system level changes have taken place on foot of the publication, including the commitment to implementation of the recommendations of those reports. The fact that formal enforcement powers do not exist does not mean that there is not a means, through the work that HIQA does and the investigative powers it has, of creating a set of recommendations that then become an imperative for Government to address and implement.