Mr. Kevin Figgis:

I will respond briefly and then hand over to my colleague, Ms Michelle Monaghan. Since she is a radiographer by profession, she will be able to deal with the question to some degree.

Specifically on the unions, in 2012 we actually agreed the extension of the working day for radiographers according to an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. model. It was agreed that it would be brought in from Monday to Friday in the first instance. Basically, the day was extended by one third. Does the Deputy know how many staff were deployed in order to achieve that? Zero. What happened was that medical staff, or clinical staff, were arriving in the diagnostics department asking why a particular room that was open the day before was not open. The response was that the staff who were in the department the preceding day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. would be in at 12 noon because they were now working from noon until 8 p.m.

People will talk about these great ideas but great ideas need funding and that is why we are discussing this issue. There is not an education fund for radiographers. We have examples of radiographers throughout the country who, through credit union loans, have funded their own postgraduate education.