Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I have three questions regarding staff deployment in his Department. First, what happened to the staff who were hired or assigned initially to the strategic communications unit, SCU? Were they assigned elsewhere in the Department or where are they now? Second, in regard to the six staff allocated to the Brexit advisory group, are they civil servants who have been given that task or experts hired in with a particular skillset? Will the Taoiseach indicate what is the skillset and job specification of those six individuals? Third, he announced some time ago that he would take a hands-on oversight role on health because one of the issues he has been concerned about, right back to our own time in government, is managing health expenditure. Has he experts in health economics in his Department to advise him on his announced role in regard to taking a hands-on oversight role on managing health and health expenditure into the future?

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