Dr. Tony Holohan:

The judgment has to be seen in light of its assessment against the provisions of section 9. The way I would characterise this - I am not a legal person and I am not paraphrasing legally - is that the bar in respect of section 9 is so high that it is almost impossible to reach. It is significant from a patient safety point of view that a Minister is in the situation our Minister is now in. He is unable to operate or act, in legal terms, on the significant concerns he still holds regarding a particular patient safety incident. I am not getting ahead of where we will end up when I say that this might well lead the Minister to conclude that he needs additional powers and an additional ability to act in the public interest in situations where he has genuine concerns about patient safety.