Ms Laura Magahy:

Yes, there are three issues I can deal with. I thank the Deputy for his questions. The first is how big the electives will be. The thinking at the moment is that there will be nine theatres in Cork, eight in Galway and 21 in Dublin. That might change as we are still in the middle of developing the model and the final business case.

The consultants contract has issued to the representative bodies. We are hoping that there will be a substantial engagement process, which we have asked them to engage in. There is a great deal to discuss within it. There are two fundamental issues that Government decided upon. One is not to have any private practice off-site and the second is the salary levels but there are plenty of other issues that can be discussed and engaged upon in a meaningful way. We are hopeful that that will be happening over the next very short time.

Finally, on the community healthcare networks, the Deputy asked what kind of population level they will cater for. These are for populations of approximately 50,000 people each and there will be 96 of these. These will be substantially implemented and rolled out by the end of this year. Staff are actively being hired for these at the moment and they will provide primary care.