David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Reid and Mr. Watt. I want to keep to the topic of Sláintecare and regionalisation. I will have some questions later on recruitment because the three reasons those who resigned from Sláintecare gave for their resignations were what they saw as a lack of movement or slow progress in regionalisation and the establishment of the RHAs; e-health, ICT and financial infrastructure; and waiting lists.

I will start with regionalisation. Mr. Watt said that lessons had been learned and that a different approach is now being taken in Sláintecare when he was asked about those resignations earlier. Can I read to Mr. Watt an email that he sent to Mr. Reid on 24 September 2021? This is a paragraph from the email:

I agreed with the conclusion that we reached to defer implementation given the pressures we all faced. Having reviewed the papers, I also agree that structural changes need to be kept to a minimum and reflect the reality of your reorganisation [as in Mr. Reid's]. Specifically, all corporate functions, clinical care pathways work, etc would remain the remit of the HSE as they currently are. And there would no vertical reorganisation.

I have to say that my heart sank when I read that because it tells me that first, there is to be no vertical reorganisation and power and control is to be kept in the centre, and that second, if we are not going to see corporate functions, clinical care pathways and so on as real parts of the reform of the RHAs, we are not going to get structures that will work. Can Mr. Watt firstly explain to me very quickly what he meant in that email?