Mr. Liam Woods:

I apologise to Senator Burke as I had meant to address that issue. We have certainly had problems with the numbers of applicants, and not just in obstetrics. In recent months, however, the numbers of applicants across the system has improved somewhat. This is clearly something that we are going to have to work on. As the Secretary General mentioned, part of the central challenge here is to create attractive posts in care settings. Getting and retaining staff in that area is critical for us. and our workforce planning, both on the women and infants programme and on a wider level, will have to focus on that. Our number of consultants has gone up by 88 overall since the start of this year so we are making some headway in recruitment.