Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator very much. The HIQA reforms will be informed entirely by HIQA looking at the data. It will look at the population and population densities. I imagine it will do a lot of interviews with front-line clinicians. I have no doubt it will engage with the HSE. It will conduct an independent expert review. I very deliberately asked HIQA to do this rather than any other body. I did not ask my Department or the HSE to do it because some people might try to suggest that there was political interference in the decision. HIQA is an independent regulator and I very deliberately asked it to do this. It is not that I do not believe the HSE would have done an excellent job because it would have. It is about preventing people from suggesting that the process is being influenced. I do not believe it would be but------