Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is okay. I am just asking because the Deputy has a question on a particular issue, just a couple of questions down on the list.

Returning to Deputy Ó Broin’s point, we need to look at how these deaths are reported. I am going to do that and am giving a commitment here, as well as when the report is completed. The appropriate place for that is the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and this would be a good thing to do. I have not asked the professor herself but if the author of the report is willing and is invited by the committee when she has concluded the report, that again is an appropriate thing to do.

As to Deputy O’Callaghan’s question on private operators, I also mentioned this at the committee meeting when I was there, the DRHE is also carrying out spot inspections. They have done 126 of these since January. I am concerned about the couple of instances raised by the Deputy. If he is aware of specific hostels where these issues are arising, I ask that he bring these to my attention and not to delay in this as I know he will not. We will look into it immediately. There are standards that even private operators must follow and they are subject to full inspection, and rightly so.

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