Dr. Tony Holohan:

It is a matter of significant concern, obviously, that confidence has been damaged substantially in an important programme that has worked in terms of reducing incidence. We know the programme is now feeding into a reduction in terms of mortality. All our efforts are to try to restore the service and then the confidence and trust that people can have in it. Confidence is easily damaged, perhaps, and challenging to rebuild and put back in place. We will not be complacent in saying that we believe this is done but we will continue to work to try to ensure that the confidence of people in the programme can be rebuilt.

It is also clear, not only in terms of the programme but in terms of what was at the centre of what happened with disclosure, that confidence in the medical profession was specifically talked about. Rebuilding trust and confidence on the part of patients is challenging and difficult. We will have to work together. The committee members heard testimony last night from patients, service providers, health professionals and policymakers. We need to try to ensure that collectively we do everything we can to try to rebuild confidence. We have hope. I will never say for certain that this will work, but we will continue to try to ensure that we build confidence. Anything we need to do to continue to improve that, we will do.