Dr. Colm Henry:

I gave those figures earlier. The normal number of places is 734. As a once-off, positions were offered to 1,100 medical students who were qualifying last year, a significant number of whom turned down the offer, so the final number who took up a position was 992. In the intervening period, we have increased the number of trainees and the opportunities for interns who have finished their intern year to stay in Ireland and get a training scheme, particularly in some of the core specialties. We have also created a number of fellowships for higher training. We introduced an overlap last year because people who qualified began work on 25 May, rather than in July, and we plan to maintain that overlap this year. As I said earlier in response to questions from another committee member, we cannot look at the number of interns in isolation from the availability of training places for them to proceed to after they have completed their intern year.