Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I did so and I must say that I remain somewhat puzzled. A lot of things just do not make sense. Mr. Lynch says the two companies have 9,000 customers between them. I am somewhat familiar with software houses and know it is not just a question of giving a package to somebody to plug into a machine and away they go. There are maintenance and support calls after that. Who is doing that for the customers of the product not produced by the companies?

I have major question marks over intellectual property, which Mr. Lynch addressed in some way. Did the companies go through a process of safeguarding the product before they got involved in working with the Department? I would like to know a little bit more about the level of integration between the companies' products and the national database because I am struggling to see benefits to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine beyond the creation of a national database or using data to check on which payments are going to the companies' customers. Perhaps we will start with those three questions because they are the areas that are most puzzling to me.