John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, it was maternity leave and there was a difficulty in getting appropriately skilled staff to take up positions in the office. There was, therefore, a turnover of staff and a difficulty there and the people who worked directly for me prior to the maternity leave being taken had to provide cover. In addition to constituency and other work, they were expected to do departmental work because they were dealing with delegations which came in and out of the office. They also dealt with information technology issues that emerged in the office at that time. That is the work they did.