Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have already expressed by email my complete dissatisfaction with this arrangement and I really want to know how we have found ourselves in this situation. It is entirely unsatisfactory. It is absolutely reasonable of us to expect to have at least one session with NPHET because there are endless outstanding questions about the decisions being taken. As the representatives of the people, we have a right to pose those questions. Various people from NPHET make themselves available very generously every single night to take questions from the media, so I cannot understand how a session here with Deputies could not be facilitated. We spoke about this yesterday and agreed we would make ourselves available at any time, day or night, this week to facilitate NPHET for that exchange. Then, out of the blue, yesterday, at 6.15 p.m., we got a notice stating that the two sessions with the Minister and NPHET were to be run in together. I want to know who took that decision, how it was taken and how it was that the media were notified about this by the Department of Health before the committee was notified. My understanding is that it is the job of the committee, not some nameless person in the Department of Health, to arrange its business. I want to know why we were not consulted about this proposal. It is entirely unsatisfactory. We cannot have any kind of decent engagement with both the Minister and NPHET over the space of two hours - less than two hours now. It is a really bad way for us to finish up our work, it should not have happened and I want to know how it happened.