Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What the Chairman has said is very important as it speaks to the empathy shared by everybody on this committee and in the Parliament. We go about our work in a technical way but there are people on this committee who lost close relatives in nursing homes because of Covid-19 and they share the personal experience of so many families. That is being represented today.

We also go about our work in a technical way and that is how I will approach this if nobody minds. I have a couple of technical questions on inspections. I know the matter has arisen in different contexts with Deputies Shortall and Devlin and although I do not wish to repeat anything, I have some specific questions that I would not mind asking that may involve a tiny amount of crossover.

The witnesses spoke about the number of inspectors that the authority has. It has 17 and there is sanction for seven more.