Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Not to my recollection. The people I would have spoken to in advance of that decision were the assistant secretary in my Department with responsibility for the acute hospital sector and the Chief Medical Officer. Certainly they were supportive of the decision and the proposal, and drafted the memo and the press statement. It is important to say that we put into the memo and it was communicated to GPs that this was to be done where a GP felt it was appropriate as part of the reassurance. Certainly no one in my Department advised me against it and I do not recall anybody after that.

The Deputy has previously said in the Dáil that letters were sent to me much later than that. Following an FOI request I believe they appeared in publications such as TheJournal.ie. In those letters people expressed a contrary viewpoint. However, this did not happen in advance to the best of my recollection.