Alison O'Connor: The two lads may have captured the system intended to oversee them

Paul Reid and Robert Watt's double act at the health committee left TDs fuming as, again, the system has grabbed a vital reform agenda — and the best we can hope for now is Sláintecare-lite

‘What we’re seeing is capture of the reform programme,’ said Róisín Shortall of Paul Reid and Robert Watt, pictured here leaving Wednesday’s Oireachtas health committee meeting.  Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews

Don't worry. The lads have it all sorted out between them. Between the highly paid pair of them, they’ll see us right. Just have a little trust, wait for another few years, all will work out just grand in the end.

After sitting through the Oireachtas committee on health on Wednesday it was difficult not to feel like a bit of a chump; like you were being taken for an eejit. Two men with big jobs in charge of our significantly dysfunctional health services — Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt and HSE CEO Paul Reid — assured TDs and senators all will work out wonderfully well into the future with the transformation of those same health services.