Mr. Kilian McGrane:

The recruitment process, as Deputy O'Reilly knows, will take time. We have a combination at present of radiographers and midwives, who go off to do the training. There are a number of master's programmes and it can take up to 18 months to complete the process. I do not have an exact figure, but we have a number of people in training at present. However, even once we start to release the additional resource, those who have experience in the training relating to the dating scan will move on and start to receive anomaly scanning training. We will increase capacity straight away in that respect. Just getting that dedicated resource ring-fenced, subject to the approval of the service plan, is a big step forward from our perspective. As the Deputy knows, it has been lobbied for for a long period.

Regarding her second question about the percentage of women not currently accessing the scan, our colleagues from Cork University Maternity Hospital in UCC did a study on this and they published the data in July, I believe. There are currently seven units in which we provide 100% of women with access to a scan, seven units in which there is some access and five units in which there is no access. In those units in which there is access, it is usually by clinical indication, and I am sure Dr. McKenna can talk to those kinds of clinical indications that may be appropriate for it.

I cannot remember the exact figure, but I think approximately 64% of women are offered the scan, so we have quite a distance to travel. The 52 sonographers also carry out dating scans. Not all of our 19 units provide every woman with a dating scan, so we have tried to spread the resource as best we can. We are making anomaly scanning the priority for 2018. This is why we are looking at a 40-person sonographer resource, and the balance of the 12 would be a 29-person resource to ensure that every unit provides the dating scan at 12 to 14 weeks.