Dr. Kathleen MacLellan:

I will respond first and one of my colleagues will answer on the business piece.

We have addressed some of the issues on home care on which we committed to providing additional information. There has been significant investment in this area. We are looking very closely at the establishment of a statutory home care scheme and building the capacity of the HSE for commissioning home care.

There is a standard in place for nutrition and hydration needs, namely, standard 2.2 of the HIQA standards. It is one of the standards that HIQA inspects against when its staff visit a home. Staff go through a number of elements in that standard, which I will not describe in detail in the interest of time. The standard includes residents being offered daily menus, catering, access to adequate quantities of food and the appropriate types of food. There is a particular standard in place because the importance of nutrition is recognised.

Everybody recognises how hard the visiting restrictions have been. These restrictions have been used internationally as a protective measure for residents. We have worked very hard to see how we can build and enhance the visiting in place. When we published ethical guidance through NPHET, it was around promoting proportionate visiting that strikes a balance between the protective measures and allowing for the health and well-being of residents. Dr. Kennelly will comment further.