BBC Democracy Live - Poots briefs committee on homes and heart surgery 9 May 2013 Last updated at 16:57 Help Northern Ireland Health Minister Edwin Poots said his Dublin counterpart, James Reilly, was "open-minded" about co-operation on child heart surgery that could allow some procedures to continue to be carried out in Belfast, on 9 May 2013. Mr Poots was briefing the Assembly's Health Committee on a "useful" meeting with Mr Reilly the previous day. "I would like to see a circumstance whereby you would have a main surgical service in Dublin which would do the more complex procedures and I would like that skill base to expand so that we would be sending fewer of our children to Birmingham and more to Dublin in the future," Mr Poots said. He envisaged procedures of a less complex nature being carried out in Belfast, including surgery for children from Donegal and the border counties. I don't wish to raise expectations in any way, shape or form. What I am seeking to do is exhaust all possibilities of retaining surgery in Belfast," Mr Poots said. Earlier in the committee meeting, the chief executive of the Health and Social Care Board said he was deeply sorry for the distress caused over the potential closure of residential care homes. John Compton said it was never his intention that older people should be distressed or upset. On Friday 3 May, Mr Poots told representatives of Northern Ireland health trusts to drop the policy adopted by some of closing 100% of their residential homes. Mr Poots told the committee he had heard some people describe the trusts' proposals as "closure by stealth" and acknowledged that they had caused a lot of concern and distress. The minister said that each elderly person would be dealt with sensitively. He said that some of the media had been "grossly irresponsible" in their handling of the matter.