Mr. Robert Watt:

Yes, we are still recruiting and replacing people in certain areas, so the Irish Independent might be correct for once. We bring in new teachers every year from St. Patrick's College of Education and Mary Immaculate College. Nurses are coming into the system and there is some limited recruitment in other areas. The reductions in nominal spend across the system, given the demographic pressures we face, and the numbers reductions are without precedent. We have much contact with colleagues in the OECD, the IMF and other organisations and one message they continually give us is how the difficult but necessary reduction in the size of the public sector has been effective in terms of sustaining services where we can despite the reduction in cash. This achievement across the system in dealing with these enormous pressures should not be underestimated.

If we compare the reduction in HSE staff and cash allocation to the increase in medical cards, procedures, operations and the volume of services every day, there has been an enormous improvement in productivity. In the third-level sector we have reduced the number of lecturers by 8% or 9% while the number of students has increased by more than 15%. In every area the system is delivering more output with fewer resources.