OBJECTIVES: The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) is a statutory, government-funded agency in Ireland which monitors the safety and quality of the healthcare and social care systems. HIQA has approximately 210 staff, with 7 working in HTA. Since 2010 we have completed 7 full HTAs and 25 rapid HTAs in addition to 6 national HTA guidelines. This study sought to evaluate the impact of a national HTA. METHODS: In 2013 the Minister for Health requested that we examine the implications of establishing a national public access defibrillation (PAD) programme in Ireland to increase survival from out-of-hospital cardiac http://www.hiqa.ie/healthcare/health-technology-assessment/assessments/hta-public-access-defibrillation