Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not acceptable that the committee was provided with the terms of reference at that time. The Department is no more perfect than any organisation or any of us in what we do. The Senator made some quite strong statements and I state for the record that the Department of Health over the past 18 months has been working at a pace that I have never in my life seen people work. I was at my desk long after midnight during the week to sign regulations with the teams of people there and I had regulations at my house at 11.50 p.m. the other day. We had Government decisions on Friday and they were regulated for by midnight on Monday. The women and men working in the Department of Health are as open to error as the rest of us, and God knows we all are, but I state that I have not seen anything as impressive as the work rate, output and dedication that has come from the Department of Health during this pandemic. That does not mean they get it all right.