Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Whoever is the Opposition and whoever is the Government - it is a fluid situation at the moment - there should be a regular meeting with the HSE. I would not like to see that dropped. I thought it was quite a useful engagement and would support ensuring that it happens again. What I am saying to the Deputy is that we already know there are impacts in terms of secondary morbidity and secondary mortality from Covid. We just talked about it in respect of the potential risks of domestic violence. We have talked about it in connection with mental health and screening. At this stage, it is very hard to be definitive about the scale of all of that because it is very much interlinked with how quickly we can get the services recommenced and how we can continue to keep the virus down. That is the point I was making.

The HSE board is independent and is doing an excellent job. It is a very good board.

See this speech in context