Dr. Fergal Lynch:

We accept that ideally the Department would have engaged in that consultation at an earlier stage. We have to look back to the middle of March this year when things were extremely fraught and difficult in trying to organise things in a very short period. We certainly did not have a huge number of options at the time. When we worked our way through what was possible, we were asked to come up a scheme very quickly in the first instance. In the event, it was not put in place for some time thereafter. At the beginning, we were very pressed for time. We also had practical issues around the number of options we would be able to consult on. It really came down to the question of being able to put individual childcare workers into the healthcare workers' homes. I accept that ideally we would have been in a situation where we would have consulted. I do not believe it is typical of our reputation or our practice. The Department has a strong reputation for consulting widely on a whole range of issues. As referenced earlier, we now have a good system of consultation using the advisory group that meets once or twice a week. We also have a reference group that also operates effectively. I absolutely accept that it would have been far more ideal for us to have been able to consult on that scheme, but they were extremely difficult days in March and April