James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reason I highlight that is it is important for collegiality in the work that the Department and the HSE does that all Ministers would be present and that briefings would be provided.

All of us present are reasonable people. We accept that during Covid decisions had to be taken. Some turned out to be the wrong decisions and we have to ask the questions. The Irish Examiner did a lot of work on the story about the €450 million of unused PPE. What safeguards did the Department put in place when trying to acquire that? I appreciate that there was a rush and that a lot of difficult work had to be done very rapidly, and we did not know where things were going with Covid but it is an unmerciful amount. A sum of €450 million is by no means a small amount. I want to get an insight into what actually happened there.