Mr. Bernard Gloster:

First, it has been not been cut back where it started. I insisted on keeping it where it was. It is quite difficult to staff over the seven days because Pathfinder relies not just on EMT paramedics but also health and social care professionals, particularly physio or occupational therapy. It is not a question of it not being valued. If you take pre-hospital emergency care in its totality, encompassing the ambulance service, the helicopter service, the advanced paramedics and the need to train more paramedics, which we are now doing, we have to scale it. Then there are the alternative pathways, such as emergency department in the home, EDITH, which operates out of St. Vincent's University Hospital, as well as Pathfinder, which is in a number of counties, and what are called community paramedics. We are trying to grow all of those in step. However, in fairness to the Department and the Government, we can only cut the cake so much in any one year's service plan. There certainly is no question but that Pathfinder is a useful part of what we do. Where it will come within the priority of what we have to invest in the ambulance service will probably be the factor that will determine the time it will take us to get there.