Ms Oonagh Buckley:

This predates me to a certain degree. We submitted a strategic workforce plan last year. The total number sought was 59. As always there is a very stringent approach as to whether the business case is met. We received initial sanction that allowed us to start a process, which is about to be completed, for a director of marine planning. On 18 December we received sanction for 33 people, which allowed us to start the process of recruiting in January. We do our own recruitment, which is useful but there is always a time lag. We will go back for the remaining 59 but my view, having been on the board for some weeks so it is a very preliminary view, is that we will have to go further. I expect that over the course of the next year to 18 months, the numbers in the board will have to be 50% more than they are at present. We have a workforce of approximately 200 at present. This will bring its own challenges. The walls of the building are not made of rubber. There will be issues in this regard. As has been mentioned, the key area of the decision-makers and those who will become the commissioners but are ordinary board members at present need to be recruited. I spoke to Deputy Gould about this. Something we need to discuss with the Department is whether 15 would be sufficient to deal with the backlog or do we need to go a little bit further and then pull it back naturally over time. These are the types of discussion that have not yet taken place. We will go back very shortly with a fresh business case for the remaining numbers that we have indicated we need.