Mr. Bernard O'Regan:

I will follow up on some of the Senator's other questions. On transparency with families and the wider community, as well as an education programme, I do not want to keep repeating myself, but a lot of what the Senator talked about is factored in to the work we are doing on our communication strategy. The overall principle of being absolutely transparent with people is something that we are committed to and is the direction we want to go in. It is very difficult sometimes for staff to sit in front of families. It is okay for me to be in a meeting like this and say that we will be transparent in terms of making information available.

I know it is very difficult for individual staff members who are sitting with families to translate that principle into a conversation because they may be conveying a message that is very difficult for those families to hear. I do not want to be trite or flippant about it but it is certainly something we have been working towards and looking to do in a way that supports the staff, who are the people at the front line of the issue.

With regard to those who have previously had a PTA under the SOP, we are looking on a plan as to how we will engage with those families. We will write to and contact them directly once we have a clear direction on the way we want to go with it.

On career progression, we had indicated that we would look at increasing the number of senior posts to try to create some career progression to make it an attractive field to enter and as part of the strategy with regard to staff retention. That is something we are talking to the CHOs about.