Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

Without labouring the point, I have the figures here. The total number of health service staff in January of this year in whole-time equivalents was 119,817. It depends on when one is measuring from. We are measuring from when we had 39,000 nurses. In the nursing category, between January 2019 and January 2020, the difference is 125. That still provides for a total number of nursing staff of 38,205 when we had 39,000 in December 2007, so we have not increased.