Welcome to this edition of HIQA News.

Firstly, I am delighted to warmly welcome the appointment of Professor Caitriona O’Driscoll and Loretto Callaghan to the HIQA Board. They bring extensive experience across healthcare, regulation, governance, academia and the life sciences, which will support our Board in its oversight of HIQA as our responsibilities continue to expand. I am looking forward to working with both Caitriona and Loretto and wish them every success in their new roles. 

HIQA’s core role is to promote and enable health and social care services to provide safe, effective and people-centred care. This includes setting and updating our standards in response to changes in how care is delivered, listening to people about their experiences, monitoring and regulating services and providing independent evidence to support decisions. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used across health and social care, with the potential to support healthcare professionals and services in terms of enabling enhanced care delivery, supporting operational efficiency and in research and innovation. Its use needs clear accountability, appropriate safeguards and a strong focus on the rights and safety of people. We recently published Ireland’s first National Guidance for the Responsible and Safe Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health and Social Care Services. Our guidance provides practical direction for services and staff, based on the principles of accountability, a human rights-based approach, safety and wellbeing and responsiveness. It is also designed to help people understand what they should expect when AI is used in their care.

Listening directly to people using services continues to be central to how we regulate, set standards and undertake evidence synthesis reviews. As a regulator, it is essential that we ensure that our regulatory approach focuses on what really matters to residents and their families. In September, we published our Resident Forums Report 2025, which captures the experiences and views of people living in residential disability services. Residents told us about their experiences of our inspections and what they value, and their feedback is helping us improve how we communicate and engage with them and how we carry out inspections. It also helps us ensure that people’s rights, preferences and lived experiences remain central to our regulatory approach.

We also published our first standalone Overview Report on the Regulation of medical exposure to ionising radiation. The report shows continued improvement in compliance with regulations designed to protect people undergoing medical Radiological Procedures. This ongoing oversight helps services to identify risks, learn from incidents and provide safer care to patients. 

Collaboration and cooperation with our counterparts in Europe is an important part of our role as a Competent Authority for Ionising Radiation. The meeting of the Heads of the European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities Working Group on Medical Applications was recently co-hosted by us and the Department of Health. Bringing regulators and international organisations together allows us to share learning and develop more consistent approaches to radiation protection as healthcare and technology evolve. The meeting saw the launch of a European inspection campaign focused on patient radiation protection and the justification of diagnostic imaging. Through our involvement in this European work, we can contribute our experience and bring learning back to Ireland to continue to support the safe use of ionising radiation in healthcare services.

This issue also marks an important milestone for the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC), which recently celebrated 30 years of the Immunisation Guidelines for Ireland. Since 1996, these guidelines have translated NIAC’s independent, evidence-based advice into practical information for healthcare professionals, supporting immunisation policy and practice across Ireland. NIAC has been hosted by HIQA since 2025, and it is supported by a dedicated team in our Health Technology Assessment Directorate. We look forward to continuing to support its work and ensuring healthcare professionals have access to independent and trustworthy information to inform immunisation practice and protect public health.

Our health technology assessment work continues to provide independent evidence to help decision-makers consider how services and resources can best meet people’s needs. We have begun an assessment of whether the funding criteria for cochlear implants for adults should be expanded so that more people with hearing loss have the option to get a cochlear implant. In addition, we have started an analysis of tobacco affordability in Ireland, which will provide evidence to the Chief Medical Officer and Department of Health on how affordability should be measured and how Ireland compares internationally. We are also inviting people to contribute to our assessment of healthcare services for people with severe neurological impairment as they move from paediatric to adult care. This consultation provides an opportunity for people using these services, families, carers, healthcare professionals and the public to help inform our final advice on how adult services could provide more coordinated and ongoing care.

This issue also features pictures from our recent series of roadshow events for providers of disability services, our Director of Health Information and Standards Rachel Flynn speaking at the Ibec Health Forum, and members of our Diversity and Inclusion Working Group attending the recent Workplace Excellence Awards, where we were delighted to be nominated for an award. 

Across all of our work outlined in this issue, our focus remains on using our role to support safer, better and more person-centred health and social care, and on ensuring that the experiences and needs of people using services inform what we do.

I hope you enjoy reading about our work.

Best wishes,

Angela