Mr. Jim Breslin:

I joined the Department in the second half of 2014. The then Minister, Deputy Varadkar, was appointed that summer. My understanding – this is not based on direct personal information – is that the HSE took that decision within the HSE in the context of the introduction of hospital groups and hospital group chief executives. The idea was that that responsibility, rather than staying at national level, would be delegated to the group chief executives. It was an operational decision made in the HSE. There was no legislative or policy decision made in the Department on that. I do not have any more information on who knew what at the time.