Mr. Liam Doran:

The short answer to that question, with respect - we are not oblivious to the world - is that the HSE has been told to save €292 million under the Haddington Road agreement this year and this is the easiest way of finding it because its front-line staff, has the highest turnover of staff, it has a female workforce. This is the easy option without any consideration being given to patient impact. What we are desperately striving for and we would be right would be to call a truce to the cut in the health system, let us properly staff it, using international best practice and then we can grow and plan our manpower. We would welcome that but what we have at present is freefall.