Mr. David O'Callaghan:

The point about the waiting list is that there are some cases that are eight months old. As Ms Higgins said, all cases are assessed when they come in and the priority ones are dealt with urgently, the over-70s in particular, although we had an exception to that as mentioned by Senator Ruane. The current target is that by the end of June, those arrears will be reduced. The eight months will become six months and we will be making improvements as we go along.

We have a limited resource. We could double our staff but those salaries would come out of the fund, so it is self-defeating.