Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

The figures are probably accurate but, as the Chairman said, the system grew up in the way it did over more than 20 years, including in the days of the health boards. To be clear, and as the Chairman probably knows, the responsibility in the first instance for providing the out-of-hours GP service is a contractual responsibility of individual general practitioners. The HSE provides a huge amount of support to the service because, as the Chairman said, it is essential. His comments on colleagues in CHO 8 are appreciated because they have put in considerable work.

To be clear, on the five cells in the area, four of which were covered by the company the Chairman referred to, the HSE provides and fully staffs the call-taking service in Ardee. It provides and staffs fully the triage nurse service based in the Scott Building in Tullamore. We provide another 50 staff, including ancillary support staff and drivers. The GPs provide, or did provide, the input to that service. At short notice, after the company limited by guarantee, not the HSE, got into difficulty with the company it had engaged to provide operations-management services and then decided it was itself going to wind up operations at short notice-----