Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said that the HSE has its own autonomy in doing this.

Can the Minister of State clarify whether we have passed the stage when a Minister can say, "This is what we need to do and this is the way we are going to do it"? Many Ministers would not do some of the things we have seen done so is there a cohort in the HSE who go off on tangents of their own, only for it to come back to the Minister when it backfires? As Deputies, we also get it day in, day out. Who makes the calls on these things? Is it someone in an office who decides, while the Minister is left carrying the baby?

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