Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I will give a bit of the background first. The Covid pandemic was the equivalent of a global storm and, as we know, after every storm there is an element of a clean-up required. The volume of personal protective equipment, PPE, in storage was immense to the extent that we had to contract significant additional external storage to manage the logistics around it, which was essential in keeping staff at work and keeping them as safe as we could. I again acknowledge that staff put themselves in harm's way, in many cases. The reason we ended up with so many protective suits was because of that particular time. It should be borne in mind that most decisions around purchasing PPE and ventilators, etc., were made in March and April 2020. As we sit here today behind a wall of vaccines, we all feel somewhat different about things now compared to how we felt then. Back then, we did not know if vaccines would be available and, if they were, when they would be provided. Europe was identified as the centre of the pandemic in March 2020. That is not an excuse; that is by way of context.