Mr. Toby Wolfe:

Will I just come in on the question the Senator raised about the consistency of inspections? She referred back over a long time period and the two inspectorates have put a lot of effort in recent years into trying to ensure there is consistency in the standards applied and how different inspectors across the country apply the regulations. Measures include agreed quality and inspection frameworks that all inspectors are working to. I cannot remember the exact year the Tusla quality and regulatory framework was published. It was 2017 or 2018, so just a few years ago. There are national and regional management structures that are overseeing the inspections and trying to ensure that consistency across the board. They have training and CPD for staff to ensure a shared understanding between different inspectors so they are following the same approach and have quality assurance procedures. Before inspection reports are published there are checks to ensure they are consistent. It is hard to speak about what might have happened some years ago, but now there is a lot of effort going in to ensure that consistency.