Mr. Robert Watt:

I shared the letter with the Minister. He asked to see it and I shared that with him. He indicated his broad support it. He had questions about how we would manage the funding and he was not exactly sure about that. We chatted about that and it was explained that it would be a competitive process involving the Health Research Board. He wanted it considered in more detail. He was not entirely with us so we had to have that conversation. The Minister had access to the papers when he sought them from either me or Dr. Holohan - I cannot remember - and we provided him with the papers. He had access to the papers then and he was aware of the proposed outline at that stage.