Mr. Martin D. Shanahan:

Forfás, like many public sector organisations is subject to the moratorium on recruitment and promotion. Since 2008 the Forfás staffing complement has reduced by approximately 32% and the policy complement has reduced by 42%. In light of that we have re-prioritised, re-organised and redeployed in the organisation. We have not received sanction to replace staff who have retired or left us for other reasons. As I said, we have managed the situation with redeployment, re-organisation, prioritisation and so on. Obviously there is an element of cutting our cloth to measure. We examine our priority policy issues and try to address them in as full a way as possible.