Mr. Robert Watt:

As the Deputy knows, we reduced the overall public sector numbers by about 30,000 or 10% since 2008. In 2014 and 2015 the Government was in a position to increase employment again, and the focus has been to increase the number of teachers, gardaí, nurses, special needs assistants and front-line medical staff generally. The focus has been on increasing numbers and I set out in my opening address some of the increases that have been possible. Depending on the evolution of the fiscal position and what the medium-term expenditure plan will look like, the intention would be to increase employment in those key areas over the next number of years.

The real challenge for us is not to go back to some of the practices in the past. Nearly every area of the system showed an increase. We had to be very disciplined and focused on the areas of need, where we needed to increase the volume of public services-----