Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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781. To ask the Minister for Health if a copy of all correspondence from 1 March to 1 May 2020 between the CMO and a person (details supplied) will be provided. [6691/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The role of the Department of Health is to provide strategic leadership for the health service and to ensure that government policies are translated into actions and implemented effectively.  The Department supports the Minister and Ministers of State in their implementation of government policy and in discharging their governmental, parliamentary and departmental duties. 

The Department's Management Board provides strategic leadership, direction and oversight in achieving the Department's corporate goals.  It adheres to the principles of shared participation and personal and corporate responsibility for the operational success of the Department in supporting the Ministers and Secretary General in the fulfilment of their statutory roles. The Board members are the Secretary General (Chair), Deputy Secretaries General and Assistant Secretaries, the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Nursing Officer.

It would be expected that there would be daily and ongoing interaction, including email, among members of the Management Board, including those referenced by the Deputy, across the range of issues arising in the health services, as part of the Department's day to day business.  In the time period referenced by the Deputy, correspondence and interactions will have included a priority focus on the health system response to Covid-19, and the work of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) in relation to which minutes are published on the Department's website.  While the precise volume of this correspondence between any two individuals, including those mentioned, is not quantified, it is anticipated that considerable time would be required for the search, retrieval, and compilation of documents and their review from the perspective of data protection principles.

I will be more than happy to respond further to the Deputy in regard to a request for specific information about any of the range of matters under consideration by my Department, or by NPHET.