Mr. Damien McCallion:

I may ask Ms. Hoey to come in but, on the emergency care side, we have seen a growth in weekend discharges of 30% on a Saturday and 10% on a Sunday. I am in no doubt that the new contract is a key contributor to that. That is equally the case as regards Fridays and evenings. We are seeing that growth and it assists with flow and our attempts to reduce the pressure of patients on trolleys. The new consultant contract is definitely a contributor to that. It should also be borne in mind that all of the consultants who have signed up to the new public-only contract may have previously taken the option to have a private-public split so there is an immediate benefit to our system from the contract in itself as well as from our attempts to get more value from it through weekend work. I also mentioned more flexible evenings and so on. We are happy that the number of weekend discharges is growing. It is an area of focus and we are going to keep it going. That has a particular benefit for emergency medicine consultants, acute medicine and some of the diagnostic areas. I will ask Ms. Hoey to pick up on one or two of the Senator's other points.