Ms Julie Sinnamon:

To start with the issue of pace, when we issued our first report, in March this year, 80% of the early actions had been completed. Since then, we have made further progress and more than 90% of the early actions have now been completed. In fact, when I look at the actions that have not been completed, one of those was the development of a detailed implementation plan. This plan is now at an advanced stage. One of the issues that has delayed it has been the independent review group report on the establishment of an external oversight body, the development of the terms of reference for that body, the potential interface of both of those and ensuring the implementation plan is comprehensive. The work is at an advanced stage and it has been indicated that it will be done by the end of the second quarter. The implementation plan is scheduled to be published by the end of June. The implementation plan was one delay.

Regarding external change management support, again there was a tendering issue in respect of the diversity and gender training element. This has now been completed and the gender training is scheduled to start in June. The third item still outstanding is the working time directive. This is much more complicated and has taken much longer than we expected. There has been a great deal of engagement in recent weeks, it is moving ahead at pace at this stage and it will be implemented. The Tánaiste has said it is a key priority to get this done as soon as possible and a lot of effort is going into it. I share the Deputy's concerns about the pace. We would all like to see this happening much faster but the key priority here is to ensure this is done as fast as possible but also as comprehensively as possible. This has been the reason for the delay.

On the pay scales and the turnaround in retention rates, a two-pronged approach is being taken. The first is concerned with increasing the recruitment level. Significant work is being done on advertising and promotion, particularly concerning the pay scales and the work done on them, which I referred to in my opening comments. The second issue is retention. As has been the case in many change management processes in which I have been involved, the time taken is always much longer than expected. I would not have expected to see a significant turnaround at this stage. The evidence suggests there is still a lot of work to be done before we see the impact. That is why the implementation of all the measures in this commission report is critical to addressing the retention issues, as well as being able to deliver the recruitment. There is no evidence at this stage to show the issue has been reversed. For this reason, it is critical that we get the implementation plan finalised and I, as chair of the implementation group, ensure we implement actions in line with it.