Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Connor very much for summarising for us. As is the practice, I will take the questions in groups of three. The first three will be myself, Deputy Margaret Murphy O'Mahony and Senator Colm Burke. If Mr. O'Connor can respond, I will call Senator John Dolan and Senator Ó Donnghaile.

I have some questions. It is very welcome that Mr. O'Connor has more information for us than he had on 8 March because I am sure I was not the only person who was deeply disappointed at the level of engagement we had at that time. My first question concerns the staff. How many staff in the Department of Health, and Mr. O'Connor can express it as a whole time equivalent, WTE, if that would be helpful, are employed full time to work on Brexit? I fully appreciate it may not be their full-time job but how is that work being divided?

In his submission Mr. O'Connor made reference to the Department of Health deepening engagement. There is a lot of use of the words "deepening" and "intensifying" but in plain terms, what does that actually mean? When he says he is deepening an engagement with somebody, does it mean the Department is stepping up the number of meetings? Does it mean that the quality of the discussion is enhanced or that there is more output? Mr. O'Connor might clarify that for me.

Can Mr. O'Connor give us a list of the members of the HSE steering group, and are they the people who are engaging with the stakeholders? If they are, Mr. O'Connor might identify the stakeholders for us. He made a point that the Minister attended the meeting and sat in on the working groups but how will that translate into hearing what people say and turning it into a plan?

Practically, is Mr. O'Connor in a position to guarantee continued investment in the radiotherapy services and the cross-Border arrangement between Donegal and Altnagelvin hospital? Can he give a guarantee that people in Donegal will continue to benefit from those arrangements? I can tell him that when they saw that this issue was down for discussion here, we received a huge number of calls, obviously through Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Deputy Pearse Doherty, but they are coming back to us. They want to know if that guarantee is in place. One of the issues raised with me was the potential chill effect on building capacity. We all know it is a good arrangement and that people are benefiting from it but the fear is that as Brexit moves closer it will have a chill effect on our success and being able to build on that.

Deputy Murphy O'Mahony and Senator Colm Burke are next.