Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

My question is not a particularly taxing one. I appreciate that Dr. Holohan withdrew from the process to, as he said, take away from the distraction from all of the public health work and other work the Department is doing. Is there a reputation crisis now facing the Department of Health? Is there an erosion of trust with the public? If so, what actions need to be taken either by Mr. Watt, as the Secretary General of the Department, or the Minister? What actions will be required going forward? It seems to be that this is rumbling on. As highlighted, a huge amount of work has been done around Covid and in light of the global situation things happened. However, over the past while, a couple of things have happened that are eroding people's trust. At a time when we are still in a global pandemic and we still have arguably a healthcare crisis, the erosion of public trust in the system is not ideal. Will Mr. Watt comment as to whether there is an erosion of trust and a reputational crisis and, if so, what needs to be done?