Mr. Chris Reynolds:

Oil Spill Response Limited, OSR, does not provide a service the MSO could provide. It provides what we call a tier three level response for us. What we expect from the national pollution response capacity is that harbours and local authorities have a tier one level capacity to enable them to respond to a spill up to a certain size. In the case of a bigger spill than that, the Coast Guard will step in and this is the reason for our stockpiles in Blanchardstown, Killybegs and Castletownbere. One point about Killybegs is that we are not building a Coast Guard station but are building a Coast Guard station and a pollution response stockpile, which is the reason it is a significantly bigger building. These are the three national tier two locations. OSR gives us the capacity for a tier three level response, that is, in the case of an even bigger spill, it will come in with experts, additional equipment, additional pumps and booms, as well as with a Hercules aircraft that is capable of spraying and of airlifting stores into Ireland very quickly. This is the reason we deal with OSR. We have a contract with it which is quite innovative, in that not many countries have a contract as, in the main, oil companies have such contracts. However, it has given us access to this response capacity, which is really good for Ireland. We are doing a very good thing in this regard. The London Offshore Consultants Limited is not paid a retainer. While it conducted a survey for us in 2010, it is just comprised of people we know. If necessary, we can give the company a call and its people can give us some advice. Consequently, there is no retainer issue with that company.