Mr. Pat Healy:

I will deal with a number of those in turn. I welcome the supportive comments on the progress that has been made. On the alternative pathways, that is really important. As a GP, Deputy Daly will be aware of the changes that have been happening with enhanced community care, chronic disease and so on. Our ambition is that there would be a community paramedic in each of our 96 community healthcare networks. We have trialled working with GPs in out of hours in the north east and in Limerick last winter and we will try to expand that, which is a positive thing.

On turnaround times, we fully acknowledge that work needs to be done there and that work is undertaken. You can see we have invested in the service as I set out in the opening statement. To make it practical, we try to meet a 45-minute turnaround, on average. We are achieving that in some areas but we are not achieving it in others. We have been working very astutely with our regional colleagues. The KPIs we are using now are both KPIs for NAS and a KPI for the hospital site, so they work together. We have had liaison staff and trialled that previously. Where that worked, it seems to have improved things a lot. We will try to look at that in future years.