Mr. Paul Quinn:

On professional services, I will, first, give the Deputy a sense of the overall scale of investment by the State. Of the current spend of approximately €7 billion mentioned by the Secretary General, we spend approximately €1 billion on professional services. Roughly half of that figure is in the medical professional services space, including locum doctors, etc. On the remaining amount, other big areas include legal, audit and consultancy fees. On how we will approach the spend in each of these areas, we look at how the markets are structured and what, in the first instance, we can do to control our demand. Obviously, the easiest way to save money is to not spend it in the first instance. We will seek to reduce demand across various areas and review specifications in how we buy services. Professional services are often bought by the hour. In terms of legal fees, there may be arrangements we can put in place whereby we can move to fixed price engagements for particular pieces of work, for example, conveyancing. We will also seek to drive competition in the marketplace. A number of entities across the State have good experiences in delivering savings on professional services and looking at ways of making the market more competitive.