Mr. Damien McCallion:

It is difficult for me in this instance. First, we were not there at the time. In general terms, it depends on the circumstances of that advice. If it is on policy matters, they are matters for the Department. If it is on operational matters, they are matters for the HSE. We offer advice and we have dialogue with the Department across many settings, both formally and informally. The Department will always consider that advice. As I said, it depends on the context of whether it is an operational matter or a policy matter. All I am flagging in this case is that Dr. Flannelly sent in her submission and set out her understanding at that time. We have set out how we saw the decision at the time and the context for it, but we were not aware of how that dialogue happened from there. The Department has set that out to the committee previously. It is not something we can clarify here today.