Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The process that led to the appointment today of the new Secretary General of the Department of Health was conducted by the Top-Level Appointments Committee, TLAC. It reached a recommendation that the Government accepted today. The Chairman raised the issue with me a little while ago of the response from various Departments to the committee. My Department did not play a role in the selection process. It was implemented by TLAC. If I did not write back to the committee to lay out our lack of a role in this matter, I will certainly do so.

On the point raised by Deputy Tóibín, he is correct that there has been a significant increase in public debt as a result of the decisions the Government has taken. It is my very strong view that we will need to reduce our deficit as the economy grows and employment rises. We will need to do that in recognition of the fact that the levels of public debt are very high. When the time is right, we will need to commence the process of changing the levels of emergency support that we have in place if and when the health emergency passes, which I believe it will. I believe we will get to that point in the coming weeks and months. The level of public debt that we have is one of the reasons for it. What we have been able to do during this period is to finance that higher level of public debt at interest rates that are affordable for the country and over a period that will give enough time to Ireland to recover from this pandemic before we get to the point of refinancing again. These are the kinds of things that have been enabled by the ECB and that, combined with the creditworthiness of the country and the strong condition of our national finances before the crisis hit, are really mattering now.