Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I will respond to Deputy Brassil's questions first, if I may. I was appointed as acting CEO in 2012 and became the director general in 2013 on the passage of the legislation that created those changes. By this stage, if the statements of the time were to be believed, the HSE would not exist. It was my expectation at that time that many of the changes we are discussing around hospital groups would be much more advanced than they currently are. The intention was that each hospital group would have a board appointed to it on an administrative basis, that is, without legislation, and that legislation would follow to create those hospital groups as legal entities. As we know, that has not happened.

At a certain point during my time in the HSE, it appointed boards to two of the hospital groups, namely, mid-west and what we now call Saolta. General practice was well represented on both boards, as were other local and relevant interests. Unfortunately, the process of appointing other boards has not progressed, although the Minister is currently progressing it and, as recently as last week, on a ministerial basis, appointed or reappointed a board for the mid-west hospital group and is progressively intending to do so for all the other hospital groups.