Mr. Hubert Loftus:

We get regular requests of this nature from the ETBs. The process that the Department has put in place, however, looks at three broad principles. First: what is affordable? We can only approve staffing that is affordable within the funding available. Second: what are the particular priority areas set by the ETB? Third: we look at how ETBs compare with one another when it comes to matters of staffing because some ETBs might have been worse affected by the impact of the recruitment moratorium than others. I have no doubt but that if one were to talk to each of the individual ETBs, they would all want more staff, no more than any other organisation generally. We work within certain parameters, however.