Ms Emily O'Reilly:

Yes, the Minister was agitated about it because it goes to the fact that the Ombudsman's office was, yet again, pointing to an illegality and the Department was not thrilled that we were doing this because of the potential liability involved. As the then Minister Mary Harney had seen the outcome of similar behaviour just a few years earlier, a culture within the Department appears to stick, irrespective of who is there.