Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason the steering group structure was put in place in 2017 relates to the fact that we have three different elements going on here. We have the integration of three hospitals and the legislation and bringing together involved in that. It is a major body of work to take three voluntary hospitals and put them into one statutory hospital. Many people thought it would never happen but it did. That was a huge body of work which consumed a lot of my time and indeed that of Members of the Oireachtas. The second element involves the operational side, namely the setting up of Children's Health Ireland to run the children's health service. The third element was the building project. As such, the idea was to have a steering group to look at those three elements.

On the Deputy's specific question on the board, I have two answers. She asked whether it was a competency-based board and it is very hard to define it as anything else. When one looks at members' CVs, qualifications and professional experience, one sees it was not about tapping random people on the street on the shoulder. That is the first point.