Mr. John Hennessy:

Let me reinforce that point. It made very good business sense to centralise from the point of view of the cost of operating local offices in each of the health boards to administer medical cards. The saving was in excess of 100 wholetime equivalents who were redeployed into other areas. Aside from the benefits of a single system and standard operating procedures, rights of appeal and consistency, it resulted in a significant reduction in overhead costs.