Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

My understanding is that all staff working in centres should be Garda vetted but I will come back to the Deputy on that because I do not want to say something on the record that I cannot 100% stand over. We do not know how many HIQA pilot inspections are planned to take place. Again, these pilot inspections are to give HIQA an understanding, once it rolls out the full scheme of inspections in the new year, of how they will work and how they will operationalise. Again, I can come back to the Deputy with further information on that point.

All centres that exist at the moment are inspected twice a year by officials from my Department and once a year by the inspectorate company, QTS. These are a mix of announced and unannounced visits, and it is particularly important that we have those unannounced visits to ensure that, at all times, standards are as they should be.

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