Mr. Muiris O'Connor:

I can speak to that. In terms of the direction that we are working under, the HSE senior management team, the Department of Health senior management team and the senior management team in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth are working under clear direction from Mr. Watt and Mr. Reid to implement the regional health areas consistent with the Sláintecare vision. The commentary on the email is overplayed and is not consistent with the work programme under way.

The frequency of meetings was mentioned. There are meetings every fortnight at least on the implementation of RHAs. The implementation team, consistent with Mr. Reid's and Mr. Watt's overall responsibility for the implementation of Sláintecare, connects their senior management teams on a very deep basis to implement the programme. Our high-level timeline is to have a detailed implementation plan completed at the end of this year to work through 2023 to phase in implementation and, all going well, to introduce the regional health areas from 2024 onwards. Recognising the importance of engagement with this committee, the public and in particular with staff across the health and social care system, in the preparation of a detailed implementation plan our intention would be by the autumn, September or so, to have a comprehensive plan for deep engagement with the committee and all interested parties.

There are a number of work programmes. Mr. Watt and Mr. Reid have spoken to the scale of the reform programme. It is not a caution about the ambition of it, it is a recognition of just how fundamental it is and how important it is to maintain service delivery through the period of implementation. We are setting up work streams now on governance - corporate and clinical; workforce planning, which has featured in this discussion; the opportunity to totally reform and bring greater visibility to the allocation of finances on a population basis; capital infrastructure; and engagement. That is the high-level timeframe. I hope it provides assurance about the senior level engagement on this.