Mr. Paul Reid:

My colleague, Dr. O'Reardon, may wish to comment on this as well. Our response to date has been primarily driven by the public health advice given by the NPHET and Government decisions. From a HSE perspective, we implement those decisions. I am very familiar with the process outlined by the Deputy from the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics and the financial economics process behind that. It is a very good benchmark.

However, in the context of the pandemic, our response has generally been driven by public health measures to protect and save lives. Many of the measures we have implemented from a range of perspectives, including the impact on the economy, society or the health service and costs. Examples include PPE and testing and tracing, which have been a big cost for us this year.