Mr. Paul Reid:

Yes. We had a very detailed engagement just last week with all the hospital groups, some hospital leads and clinical leads, some specialists and some heads of nursing. It was a very significant engagement process to facilitate their feedback into the process.

The Deputy is correct that this is a massive change management issue. Integrating nine CHO areas and six hospital groups is a very significant change management issue. Yes, people will have a natural lens in terms of what it means for them. It is a big change management issue and as Mr. O'Connor has said we will spend a lot of time engaging with staff.

Mr. Canavan and Ms Breda Crehan-Roche are here. I believe that things are moving on very well. People can really see the benefit of the investment in enhanced community care. People are embracing the opportunity with step-down care beds, the new role for the National Ambulance Service, the pathfinder process, community intervention teams, older persons teams, and integrated care for older persons. Ms Crehan-Roche gave a very live example in that regard. I believe that things have moved on to where people can see it now in reality, as opposed to being on PowerPoint. It is hard to find any upside to Covid but if there is any upside, it is that we implemented Sláintecare at a rapid pace. I have said this publicly before. We took it off PowerPoint, we took it out of the spreadsheets, and the teams implemented it. People can see the reality now, which is happening under the change management process.