Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

I wish to make a point on the depreciation charge with regard to the lease in this case. The depreciation charge is 2%, which assumes a 50 year life of the improvements. This is the point we have raised with FÁS. We must examine this because in reality it should be depreciated over the life of the lease and in this case it was a ten year lease because it was anticipated that at the end of ten years a new building would be on the site. More generally we will examine with FÁS its accounting policy and see the implications. FÁS is effectively in its last year of operation and it will wash out anyway in the final reckoning, but it is an important principle that improvements made to a leasehold building should be depreciated over the life of the lease or otherwise as appropriate to the nature of the improvements made.