EGMC - I don't know if the people taken were consecutive in the pool but no, not everyone applied for the deal - roughly 2/3 I would estimate it at.
If people in the pool get a job elsewhere then CTC aren't to know unless the person tells them, so they do essentially remain in the pool. I know of 5 people at Ryanair who are still in the pool as they never told CTC. So the current list is very hard to know exactly where you are in it. So you could be 40th but 30 people ahead of you may have jobs but you aren't to know. Those 30 people of course can't then apply for the positions CTC offer you so you would be pleasantly surprised if 10 people were offered jobs!
Who knows whether the cadets can fulfil the current requirement. If there's 12 a month coming out of NZ, or whatever the figure is, I would imagine they only Type Rate 12 people a month for easy too? So sure, if a magical new carrier comes to them things may look good for ATPers but currently having been in the pool so long it's hard to get upbeat about it. I'd love to think we'd be plucked from the pool soon but without knowing any figures it's impossible to guess. Fingers crossed though. And at least it's moving however slowly that is.