Mr. Kevin Duffy:

Deputy Rabbitte raised questions on the numbers of undergraduate places. Time does not allow me to read the numbers but they are set out in a report in table 6.1 and page 61.

In terms of monitoring numbers and getting people in, one of the initiatives that was taken, independently of anything that the commission recommended, was to set up an oversight group as a consequence of an agreement reached between the nursing unions and the Department of Health. Good work was done in trying to identify where vacancies were and the numbers of people who should be recruited to try to fill them. One of our recommendations was that the oversight group should continue.

Deputy Rabbitte asked how the commission came up with the figures in the absence of data. As my colleague, Ms Curry, told the committee we had to look at 40 sources. It was not that we did not get information, but it was difficult to get it. Deputy Neville asked the reason for the delay. It was the difficulty in having to go to a multiplicity of sources to get the information.

On the points just made by Senator Devine, none of the figures that she gave to the committee were before our commission. No one spoke to us about the figures she had. I am not so sure where those figures come from. We acknowledge in the report the difficulties in the mental health area, and we suggested initiatives that could be taken at least to ameliorate those difficulties.