Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I thank the Deputy. The overall context of what he said about timing, delay and process goes back to what I said. My job is to try to reduce, in every way I can without being reckless, the time it takes the HSE to do things. Whether that is in the context of a building programme or in response to a surgical demand improvement, such as scoliosis, I have no dispute with the observation the Deputy made.

I will have my first meeting with the board of the HSE on Friday week. I am very much looking forward to working with it. I met every individual member of the HSE board before I started. To be fair to them, they have done enormous work since they were appointed in late 2019 in coming through and guiding the organisation through the pandemic and still guiding a lot of detailed improvement work required for aspects of Sláintecare and other things. On how I relate to the board, I have had significant discussions with the chair and all the members. The one thing I have asked the HSE board to do is to ensure I am appropriately held to account for the job I do. I am already having discussions with the board on matters such as connecting regional leaders and chiefs to it. The board has five subcommittees to do specialist focus on its work. All of the people who generally support that work are from the centre of the HSE. I will have some final discussions with the board regarding bringing some of the regional people into that so the board has direct visibility of, information on, and insight into that real, lived, local, regional experience. I certainly intend to drive and improve that. Ultimately, if we move to six regional health areas with six chiefs, I expect they will have a very active part to play in the board processes of the HSE. To be fair to board members, they would very much welcome that. They are a very active board that is very interested in what the experience of the public is of this big organisation of 140,000 people.