Mr. Robert Watt:

I will go first and Mr. Reid or a member of his team may wish to come in afterwards. We produced a report yesterday along the lines of Sláintecare implementation. While it may not have produced in time for the Senator and committee members to go through, it sets out, in effect, what the Senator suggested. Some 228 deliverables have been set out, of which 200 have been categorised as progressed, on track or with minor challenge. That leaves 28 with a significant challenge. We have set out a dashboard or traffic light system. We certainly would welcome any comments on how that reporting could be improved. That is a key part of our accountability and sets out what we have done in 2021. It is a progress report that sets out where we are making progress, as well as where there are challenges and significant challenges. We touched on some of that this morning.

No matter what we produce, there will always be argy-bargy. Argy-bargy should not necessarily be seen as a bad thing. Debate is good and being challenged is good. No matter what we prepare, there will always be contested space in health and other areas of public policy given its importance. We welcome any suggestions the committee may have in terms of improved reporting that would help it with its role in calling us to account.

As for recruitment, which was touched on earlier, a significant amount of recruitment has taken place. There are challenges around that and we are doing a variety of things to address them. There is a wider societal piece about making the health system attractive to people. It is about pay. It is about working conditions. It is about the overall sense of the discussion around health. Mr. Reid touch on this earlier. Working in health provides a fantastic career and fantastic opportunities, and it is much more positive than negative. Of course, there are negatives and, unfortunately, in the public debate, the negatives drown out most of the positives. It is a challenge for Mr. Reid and me, as well as our teams and others, to better communicate the positives of the health system in terms of what has been done, the achievements and the enormous pride people have in their work. We always get a sense of how people are enormously proud of working in the HSE, in other parts of the health system, and in the Department of Health, and how they feel they are making a contribution. I do not believe it is just about pay. It is about a whole variety of issues, including structural issues and making employment as attractive as possible for people.