Ms Laverne McGuinness:

Regarding Deputy Doherty's question on positions and senior management - I will get Mr. Dunne to respond in a couple of minutes - what I set out in the opening statement was that all senior management positions have gone through a competitive process. There is a job description in respect of each of them. Over the last 12 to 18 months there were six senior positions which all went through a competitive process with a very specific job description. There were two staff members at a senior level working within the ambulance service who were reassigned to alternative roles which they had the skill sets to carry out. They were reassigned at the same grade and HIQA was quite complimentary of that in the report.

I have asked HIQA to identify the particular posts in order that we can address this issue immediately.