Mr. Andrew Condon:

Our information is from 11 June, five days later. The Deputy received a communication that there were eight vacancies in Letterkenny. He also referred to 80 vacancies across the north west, which I presume is possibly Mayo but more likely to be Sligo and Letterkenny. Again, our information is that the figure is substantially lower. I put a warning tag on individual figures taken at a certain date given the dynamic nature of the situation. We have been in this place repeatedly in the past three to four years, where in May or June we have a certain vacancy rate but by the time we get to the NCHD rotation date in July what we find is that we have to make no reduction in services and the staff employed often provide a higher level of service. I will ask my colleague, Dr. Browne, to comment on the actual response we would have if there was a service issue.