Mr. Tadhg Daly:

Back in December we were looking at a waiting time of 12 weeks and the good news with the atypical working scheme, further to our engagement with the Department of Justice, is that significant progress has been made on the scheme. In some cases the waiting time has reduced to seven days, which is very positive.

The main sources of candidates right across the health service, not just in nursing homes, are in India and the Philippines. We are working closely with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on the clinical adaptation programme for staff coming from overseas because of the impact they have right across the entire health and social care service. That is very positive.