Mr. Éamonn Donnelly:

I do not hear that often, to be honest, but there was that sense. One can never have trust, particularly between a front-line workforce and a corporate employer, if the way we do things is that every time there is a controversy or a scandal we try to generate a blame culture and react to that then by putting in place resources.

The senior manager who may want to consult everybody in the world is told to go out and deliver something to alleviate this controversy or scandal. People then come to us to tell us what is happening to them. There is no shared vision. In my 20 years as a union official Sláintecare is the first attempt to get on the same page about a healthcare system. In order to generate the trust Deputy Donnelly talks about, we will need to work on a vision and get away from this turf warfare of one person being more important than someone else. The patient is the important aspect in all this.

I do not think it is a lost cause. We will struggle so long as we continue to react to scandals and controversy, as the dominant dynamo.