David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am taking ten minutes. I welcome our witnesses and commend them on their service and work in representing their members - Mr. Daly in particular -and patients. I also commend them on dealing with a very difficult situation where, as I am sure they know, staff were across different departments as well.

I will talk Mr. Daly through his opening statement in a few minutes. He will understand, however, that at the previous session we asked for all correspondence between NHI and the Department of Health. We got that today at 9.30 a.m. We have not had time to go through all that correspondence in detail, but I have isolated some items, which I want to go through because they illustrate exactly what is in Mr. Daly's opening statement.

I will start with No. 32. I will not name the individuals involved, but Mr. Daly wrote to a senior official in the Department on 16 March setting out his concerns. I know there was prior correspondence, but on that date, he emailed this individual seeking a commitment to a dialogue. He referred to critical issues he had raised previously referred to considerable anxiety, access to PPE and issues concerning essential workers, and he suggested that a working group should be established to co-ordinate activities in the home care setting. Does he recall that?