Dr. Tony Holohan:

The Deputy asked a series of questions and to be honest, I have not internalised every single one of them. I have not come prepared with the specific pieces of information so I cannot tell him exactly how many people were present. However, the number was probably in the order of ten or a dozen. NPHET has grown over the period according to our needs. That is the nature of that particular team. We have used it on many occasions in the past as a structure to guide our response. Its composition, size, scale and expertise depend on what our needs are at a point in time. We have, therefore, brought on or co-opted people at various points along the way.

On the minutes, which the Deputy asked about, I do not think he is up to date. We have caught up in terms of the minutes, even in the past number of days. It is important, however, to understand the process that we use. I was asked how we capture decisions and conclusions. What we do, before the conclusion of each meeting, is agree on the conclusions and actions that form the basis of the advice that goes either to the Minister, and through the Minister to the Government, or to the HSE and its CEO. We agree that text in the meeting. The final part of each meeting is reaching agreement on that and it then frames the body of the letter. We do not wait until a set of minutes has been finalised before acting because we need to be in a position to act quickly. That is the whole nature of the exercise.