Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

At that stage there would have been newer members on the board. This is important. It is very easy. This is a challenge. The Government has a responsibility to maintain existing services. In the interim, you just cannot announce new initiatives off the top of your head. I signalled very early on the move that has transpired in respect of CHI coming in under the remit of the HSE. In fact, originally - I might have been in opposition at the time - my view was that it should have come under the HSE from day one. To be fair, these are big organisational changes. They are not going to happen overnight because there is a transition process and a lot of work. You have to bring teams with you, and so on. Clearly, we have had more reports since and we have more reports to come. The Nayagam report on governance has still to come, which should feed into any inquiry that emerges. That work can be useful to any inquiry team. We must bring clinicians along. Operations and surgeries will have to continue while an inquiry is under way.

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