Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

Yes, I am. Could I just answer the Chairman's question? He just referred to transport, drivers, nursing and triage. Effectively over the past ten years or so, the HSE, in order to provide co-ordination support, has taken on more and more parts of the services. That is effectively the implementation of the recommendations the Chairman is talking about.

On the matter of going forward, we also recognise that GPs are under pressure. That is why the Department is conducting a review to see what comes next. It will be finished in the first half of this year. As has been said, the HSE is significantly supporting each of the services to give as much assistance to GP colleagues as possible, remembering that, under current policy, the ultimate contractual responsibility to provide an out-of-hours service rests with the individual GPs.