Ms Eilísh Hardiman:

We have been very fortunate in being able to attract seven new emergency medicine consultants back into our services. It is a good achievement. However, some people have taken maternity leave, which is something that simply happens in a system. We have paediatric emergency department consultants who are very committed to the project. However, we have some locum posts which are harder to fill than permanent posts. We feel we can fill permanent posts because people will return for those. However, we have a challenge with locum positions. We had some people doing locum work who have now got permanent posts and it is good to see that progression. We want to do this in a way that is safe for both the existing hospitals and for the new facility. August is one of our quietest months as many people have been away. That will give us some time. We have opened facilities on a staged basis previously while we have done all the pre-testing and so on. We want this to be a success. While it would be preferable to have every post filled, the reality is that staffing is a challenge in the health service. It is no different for us. We have made great inroads through continuous work with staff. They will come up with a process and a staged approach because everybody wants to make this work for the children.