Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I am in Leinster House, the 1932 annexe. I thank the Minister of State for being present. I also thank her for the very professional manner in which she deals with queries from my constituency office on individual cases. I record my gratitude to her for her engagement with me on behalf of my constituents and people in the Cork region who live outside my constituency.

I will start with the Private Members' motion tabled by the Labour Party last week. I questioned the Minister of State about the figures during the debate. I had tabled a parliamentary question for answer on 8 April which showed that the total number of overdue applications for an assessment of need, AON, was running at 5,078, give or take. I need some reconciliation of the figures given what the Minister of State is telling us today. There was a slight discrepancy between what was in the script we received and the script the Minister of State delivered. She stated she was pleased to inform the committee that by the end of April we had reduced the waiting list to approximately 1,500 cases. The information I received was 5,078 versus 1,500 cases. That is the first point. Could the Minister of State give us a perspective on that? Perhaps in accountancy terms, a reconciliation statement needs to be done and that might require me tabling a further parliamentary question or perhaps the Minister of State could write to the committee.