Mr. Robert Watt:

May I say something on that? Mr. Reid and myself are accountable to the Government and this committee and we are legally responsible for the allocation of budgets and spending public money on delivering this change, which is what we are going to do. I have been involved in many reform programmes across the Civil Service in particular. My experience is that they need to be driven by the people who are heading the organisations, with the political direction of the relevant Minister and the Taoiseach. That is the best way to get progress.

Now that we are in a different phase of Covid, it is my professional view – members may disagree with me on this if they wish – that what the Minister is proposing in terms of Mr. Reid and me being charged with this responsibility is the most effective way for us to deliver the programme of change. I am fully committed to doing that. It is not as it has been characterised, that is, reform being suffocated. The Department of Health wants to deliver this because the Department knows – colleagues say it to me every day – that the current system is not delivering for our citizens. It is not a case of people being hostile to or suffocating reform; quite the opposite. With the HSE, people in the Department are the ones who are driving the change and reform. We are dissatisfied with ehealth and we want to do more, and we are dissatisfied with waiting lists and the changes in that regard. The people in the Department are as dissatisfied as the Minister or anyone else. The characterisation is not fair. Officials in the Department are fully focused and driven. That is why public servants want to work in the Department of Health. That is what motivates them. They are not just motivated to stay in the Department. If they wanted easier jobs, there are plenty of them across the Civil Service.