Mr. Tom Prizeman:

With the staffing, the figures are 64 whole-time equivalents for the assessment unit. That figure breaks down to 57 core staff, and the balance would be temporary staff brought in at peak times. That refers only to the staff assessing the documentation packs and paying students. There is a different staff quota for the contact centre and the document packs. The documents come in and we check the document packs, therefore, that is 27 whole-time equivalents. The picture for a full year is actually 92 whole-time equivalents but there are peaks of staff at different times. There are peaks in August, September and October. As of next week there will be 175 staff in total, which is 96 in the head office of Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, and 79 in the contact centre and the document centre. It is a ramping up of staff. There were three people in the contact centre when it opened in February to give students the data about grants. As the months pass that number increases with the peaks of applications. We now have 175 people in total dealing with grants. As the peaks subside, that level will drop again. It will go up and down depending on peaks but overall the figure is 92 whole-time equivalents in terms of everybody doing the applications. That includes the contact centre, the document management centre and the assessment unit.