John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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As a member of the committee, though I am not speaking for the committee, I am sure the HSE is watching and if that is true, I am sure the committee wants to hear an account of what that is about. Either the vacancies are visible or they are not. If they are not, why has that happened?

The other side of this relates to private contractors. I will let the witnesses come back because I am running out of time. The HSE employed 2,000 more people than it was given money for in 2023 and 2,000 more people than it was given money for during Covid. Those roughly 4,000 people were absorbed onto the payroll, as I understand it. The HSE was given a phenomenal amount of additional money this summer by the Government to plug a number of gaps. If there is a cap or limit, that is clearly going to go to the private sector to do that rather than the HSE taking on permanent, whole-time employees. That seems to be what would happen rather than to continue absorbing numbers onto the payroll. What is Fórsa's response to that?