Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their comments. I am in office for just over a month, and I am determined to get beyond the management-speak and to get stuff implemented. I have reflected on the presentations I have received so far. Some progress has been made in some areas, but not fast enough in others. We have discussed the Organisation of Working Time directive. This is not simple. From my previous experience in different Departments, even when that came in originally, it was a very complex piece of work and there was much resistance in different organisations to the concept. Deputy Howlin will recall that in earlier times, and Deputy Aindrias Moynihan has raised this specific point, people felt the world was going to collapse in various professions, not least the health service.

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