Ms Rosemary Smyth:

The funding is driven from the national level. When we identify areas of non-compliance and breaches of regulations, particularly in the context of premises where significant resources are required to rectify the breaches, it is really from a national level. When we are addressing it at a local level we cannot get the same response; we get a response to the effect that "We do not have the money, we do not have the budget." It has to go to national level. When the national director was in post as the regulator and person responsible for registration and enforcement, we could definitely see a difference and see impact driven down to the local levels. Once that post was removed, it was very hard to engage with the appropriate people to ensure action plans were being put in place to ensure compliance.