Mr. John Conlon:

I can get the Deputy the exact figures but it was in the thousands when we would require a case officer ratio to be some 200:1. I can firm up on those figures but I think we were at a ratio of perhaps 1,200:1. That meant we could not provide the required services to unemployed people, particularly to the long-term unemployed. That is sometimes forgotten in the debate about our capacity as a Department to deal with the long-term unemployed.

There were a number of references to the Fagan case and Deputies are coming at it from different angles. Deputy Bríd Smith was right in her comment that the Department reviewed the decision. I want to make some comments on our decision making processes across all our schemes.