Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe it does, unfortunately. One can argue about the amount, but we would all love to live in a world where the health services did not have to worry about media queries or stories that are put out that can very severely damage the reputation of hospitals, small hospitals in particular, and front-line staff, nurses, midwives, doctors or EMTs. Stories that are put into the public domain by interest groups are often not the full truth but are part truth or may have another agenda behind them. It is important that the health service is equipped to fight back against that.

When stories about different hospitals all over the country were put into the public domain, it is important that the clinical directors, the clinical leads and the CEOs, as needs be, are prepared and trained and are able to go out in public and answer people's questions and explain to them what is happening and answer media concerns. If they do that badly, it can be very damaging. One has only to think about the one bad interview by the chief executive of Irish Water a year ago to understand the level of reputational damage that can be done to an organisation by a CEO or clinical person doing a bad interview. We would love to live in a world where these things did not matter.