Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

It has absolutely changed because, as members are aware, many of the WRC claims and cases are heard on premises. No more than other bodies, the WRC showed a significant amount of agility and moved very swiftly to hold online hearings. That was a change in business. Some individuals did not want to do online hearings. There was a whole range of issues, as the Vice Chairman can well imagine, that had to be developed in terms of setting that up. The same was true in the case of the Labour Court.

In terms of the caseload, first, it had a significant number of calls, with more than 50,000, but in terms of the remote hearings the number was low initially, with an 85% objection rate. However, that has since changed as people have become more familiar with the technology. My understanding is that almost 2,000 adjudication hearings were held in 2020 but that is less than half the number held in 2019. That is on the adjudication side. Obviously, it is something on which it is working very closely at the moment to-----