10.—F31[(1) The Health Service Executive may in accordance with regulations under this section make and carry out an arrangement for the boarding out in a private dwelling of a person to whom this section applies and the arrangement may provide for the payment of all or part of the costs of the boarding out by the Executive.]

(2) (a) The Minister may make regulations for the purposes of this section and the regulations may, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, provide for—

(i) the inspection of dwellings used or proposed to be used for boarding out persons under this section, and otherwise for the enforcement and execution of the regulations, by F31[the Health Service Executive and its employees],

(ii) the supervision by F31[the Health Service Executive and its employees] of the maintenance, care and welfare of persons boarded out under this section,

(iii) the making of payments, and the amounts thereof, by F31[the Health Service Executive] to persons in respect of the boarding out with them of persons under this section,

(iv) the fixing of the maximum number of persons who may be boarded out in a single dwelling under this section, and

(v) the holding and conduct of interviews (including interviews in private) of persons in a dwelling (including any persons employed in the dwelling) if F31[the Health Service Executive] has reasonable cause to believe that a person boarded out by it under this section in the dwelling is not receiving proper maintenance or care or that due consideration for his welfare is not being given by the person in whose dwelling he is being boarded out.

(b) A person who wilfully obstructs or interferes with F31[the Health Service Executive or an employee of the Health Service Executive] in the performance of functions under regulations under this section or who fails or refuses to comply with a requirement of F31[the Health Service Executive or an employee of the Health Service Executive] under such regulations shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) A dependent person shall not be cared for or maintained for profit in a dwelling in which a person is boarded out under this section.

(4) This section is without prejudice to the powers of F31[the Health Service Executive] under section 209 of the Mental Treatment Act, 1945.

F31[(5) In this section "person to whom this section applies", in relation to the Health Service Executive, means a person who, in the opinion of the Executive, ought, having regard to his or her means and circumstances, to be boarded out under this section and who consents to be so boarded out.]