Ms Josephine Feehily:

As to how we make the decisions, first we have a prosecutions admissions committee, the terms of reference of which are to make sure that cases are only admitted to the prosecutions programme where we have sufficient evidence and where we are likely to secure a conviction. The cases the Deputy mentioned, I am working from memory, were extremely old and our experience has been that very old cases are unlikely either to be acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions or to secure a conviction. There is plenty of case law to support that view although I do not have it to hand. Consequently, very old cases and very elderly people, which was the position in many cases in respect of the Ansbacher group, were considered unlikely to be suitable for prosecution due to the justice delayed and the lengthy time involved, as well as the lack of sufficient evidence. That is my recollection but I must admit I did not review Ansbacher for today's discussion. I have not reviewed Ansbacher for several years.