Mr. Robert Morton:

There are two aspects to that. While a dedicated liaison officer role, which is what the witnesses were referring to this morning, has proved relatively successful in the UK, it comes down to the personality of the individual doing the job. The role requires somebody who has very strong relationship building skills. The officer has to be able to build a relationship with colleagues in the acute hospital to effect the sort of changes that are required. Fundamentally, however, that role does not take away from the capacity challenges to which Dr. O'Donnell referred. Were we to introduce that role in Ireland, we would have to recruit 174 additional managers at a cost of €16.5 million. It would not be a simple solution. We are currently looking at a hybrid model. The witnesses this morning talked about 24-hour management. We are currently proposing to put in place a 24-hour management system across the NAS this year, involving shift managers in teams of six across the country. One of their duties, but not their only duty, would be to engage with the hospitals. We feel that will make some degree of difference but there are other measures that we can take and we are working with our trade union partners to develop some solutions.