Mr. John Church:

Professor FitzGerald is better placed to talk about that, but that is why we are calling for early intervention. The average payment to an employee who is out of work with a MSD is 22 weeks, versus the overall average of 11 weeks. Those figures come from the Department of Social Protection. It is unacceptable to leave somebody out for 22 weeks. If one intervenes extremely early one could prevent long-term disability and damage.