Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I heard the witnesses earlier compare this to making sure four fire tenders would be available.

If we wanted a complete picture, we could say the conditions were created in advance for the fire to get out of control. That is the reason all of the additional capacity was needed. We had that discussion with the representatives of doctors and consultants this morning. On 24 March, an announcement was made by the Minister for Health that capacity had been secured in the private hospital sector. However, the deal was not signed for another week, either on 31 March or 1 April. Who was involved in the negotiations during that week? Were only officials from the Department of Health and HSE involved or were officials from the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, involved as well?