Ms Geraldine Hurley:

At the end of May, there were just over 19,000 people on CE. The six-year rule applies there differently. That is the lifetime limit on it. I do not think we currently have a figure for how many people leave having reached that point but we can look for that figure. I do not think we have it to hand today. The big outflow at the moment is the people whose contracts were extended and who are now starting to leave. They may have stayed on CE for longer than the normal limits. The limit is normally three years. A change was introduced last year whereby anybody over the age of 55 who started on the CE scheme before 2017 can stay on it. That may be the provision to which the Deputy is referring.