Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not have the advantage of having the Bill in front of me but I refer to two points the Minister of State made in response to queries I raised in my Second Stage contribution. When he said that all centres had been visited by April 2016, does the word "visited" equate with the word "inspection"? I note the nod of his advisers that that is the case. The information I have been given is that the process is not complete and I will go back to check that detail. I was trying to establish that there were no semantics regarding the words "visit" and "inspection", etc., and that we had absolute clarity that none of the entities to which I referred have not had an inspection by HIQA. Will the Minister of State clarify that? I will seek to confirm this with HIQA.

My second point relates to the list to which I referred. In his reply, the Minister of State said that there was no list but went on to advise that there was a list. In regard to the 165, or whatever the number the Minister of State referred to, is it the case that within that figure, it is now known that a particular number will not cross the line within the two year extension for HIQA to progress the issue of registration? Will the Minister of State confirm that a number of facilities will not cross the line? Therefore, as I said earlier, we are allowing a situation where people who cannot speak for themselves and people with intellectual disability of varying degrees are being retained and kept in substandard circumstances that have no believed prospect of improving within the extended time provided for by this legislation. That is a very worrying point. Does the Minister of State have anything further to say regarding that matter or, more importantly, is there is something he can do about it?

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