Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

The Deputy is right. Agency spend tax increased substantially in the past five years. In 2019 it was €423 million and in 2022, it was closer to €720 million. Last year it was just over €780 million. It has increased substantially with the biggest part of the increase occurring before and during the pandemic. The key issue is that it has not reduced. There are efforts under way to reduce it. Our first target is to hold it steady this year against June to August levels of last year. I need the exact figure but we are 3% or 4% beyond that. We are above steady compared with last year but most of that can be accounted for in terms of price. The cost per hour of agency goes up as wages generally go up. Our overall aim is to reduce agency spend substantially. We have-----