Mr. Ger Deering:

I agree with Senator Andrews on the number of reports but we are very strong. One of the strengths of our office has been that we do not give up, even through a change of Ombudsman. The committee has heard me speak today about transport for people with disabilities. This was started almost 13 years ago by Emily O'Reilly and I am still following up on it. It is going on too long but we do not give up. Last year I spoke to the committee about the report we did with the HSE on treatment abroad. That is a model because all 18 recommendations have been implemented. This is a long answer to the Senator's question. We will now engage on a quarterly basis with the Department of housing because we see it as having overall responsibility for HAP, even though some of the recommendations involve local authorities and their shared services in Limerick. The Department has put together a subcommittee, which is charged with implementing this.

We will review on a regular basis with the Department to see the implementation of the recommendations.