Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome, for the first time, the Minister to the committee. The public are finding it very hard to understand and accept, as am I, what is being proposed. Senator Higgins raised a few of the issues I was going to touch on. This decision is being made when the Department of Health is in crisis. Some might say the health service is always in crisis but, because of Covid, we are in worse circumstances than usual. Even my own business has been in crisis where decisions were made that may not have been the right ones but, because of external factors pushing us, we were forced into making them. What analysis was conducted of the unintended consequences that Covid could have regarding the position of Secretary General?

Regarding the memorandum on 30 October, to what extent was asking the current acting Secretary General to stay on for an extended period evaluated, specifically in respect of getting beyond Covid-19?

If there is a change of leadership in the middle of a pandemic, that could upset things rather than settling them down. How much was thrashed out in respect of point one, that is, of asking the acting Secretary General to stay in his current role?