Mr. Richard Corbridge:

Another question concerned general practitioner, GP, uptake of the referral solution. As for the suggestion that it has been slow, it has been 12 months and as of August, 40% of GPs are now using it. That is not actually really slow for health care and technology. Health care globally and not just in Ireland takes time to adopt digital solutions. In respect of what we actively are doing, over the next month we will begin a communications process with the people of Ireland, namely, the patients. We will tell them that the next time they are in front of their GP, they should ask to be electronically referred. The benefit to a patient in how they feel when they have been electronically referred, rather than handed a referral and asked to post it or get to the hospital themselves, is significant. Increasingly, patients asking their GPs is what will drive the process, particularly because thus far, GPs have been warm to the electronic referral because it reduces their costs and brings efficiencies. Our commitment is that within 12 months, we will be very close to 100% of first referrals out of GP practice being electronic referrals, which globally would be quite a quick implementation of a solution like that.