Mr. John Tierney:

We have made it quite clear that the workforce will reduce, as it has reduced over time in the past five years in local authorities in terms of the numbers that have been taken out of the system through reductions such as natural wastage and voluntary redundancy schemes. In the past six years in local authorities alone, there has been something like a 25% reduction in staff numbers, and natural wastage and voluntary redundancy schemes give us good projections. However, we are not getting into a number here today because, as the committee will be aware, there is due process with unions in all of those situations with which we would have to deal.