Ms Yvonne O'Neill:

Last March, we were already involved in a number of audits. I cannot comment on the request the Deputy made for an audit. We were already in our improvement programme looking at the functioning of teams.

As regards the current situation, 20,000 open cases means that our estimate is the cases that may not have been reviewed in more than six months is probably 3,000 to 4,000 cases nationally. We will prioritise that. We want to be able to complete the review in a three-month timeline, approximately.