Mr. Paul Reid:

I will respond to the Deputy first and then Ms Hoey will give some flavour of it. We are anxious to fill any number of consultant positions we have funding for and approval to do. I gave some figures for other medical staff that were recruited but I did not give them for consultants. We have had a net increase of consultants of 506 since January 2020. Sometimes we say we are losing consultants but that is a net increase of 506. It is the biggest net increase in the health service in a long number of years. Looking at the gaps we still have, there are 4,040-odd consultant approved positions and 3,548 of those are filled. Of those filled, 412, or 10%, are filled by temporary staff. Some 270 are newly approved so we are still in an advanced process to recruit. There is a significant extra focus being put on them. The new contract for consultants is a process the Department is leading, with the Minister and the HSE, but the issue we are focused on, particularly right now, is continuing that recruitment. It has been quite significant over the past three years, bigger than it has ever been.