Dr. Rachel McNamara:

If I can start on that point, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It is a major issue and it is definitely not just the case in Sligo University Hospital. At the start of this recruitment embargo, we always said that those institutions that would suffer the most would be the model 2 and model 3 hospitals, of which Sligo hospital is one. This is because the complement of staff in those hospitals is, generally, not full. There generally are existing gaps in rosters already. When the embargo came in, those gaps then could not be filled. It was the employment complement in place just before the embargo came into place that counted, and this was the level at which hospitals were stuck.