Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will recall that we had a Supplementary Estimate at the end of last year on the basis that there was a reallocation of €12 million for salaries and wages. It started at €174 million and became €162 million. This is the Revised Estimates. On the consultancy allocation increasing by 10%, it goes from a base of €176,000 to €208,000 which is not an excessive amount. We have had a staffing issue. We are running flat out to almost stand still. Our efforts to recruit have not been as fast as we would like and what we are losing at the other side means that the numbers are not increasing by a significant amount. We hope to increase the numbers in 2018 because we are at a stage where new employees in critical areas are necessary and important.