Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I would not regard it as an admission, more as simply telling the committee. The overall public health sector is currently over its employment control limit and is required to reduce that slightly. For every extra resource that I put into internal audit or compliance, that is one less resource in health care. These are the choices with which I am faced. Against that, I have increased the internal audit function by 25% in the past two and a half years and I have established a compliance unit that was not there beforehand. I would not want the Deputy to get the impression that I have not significantly prioritised this, but it is not where it needs to be.