Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Before moving on, Deputy Harris asked about the scale of the payments. Under appendix B2 of the report, on page 92, the third row of the table at the bottom of the page refers to individual payees. The total amount paid to the 56 individuals is given as €583,000. In the sample we looked at, 44% of the amount was confirmed by the individuals who wrote back to us, which came to €264,000. We extrapolated from that sample on the basis that it was reasonable to regard it as providing assurance around 44% of the sample. Had we gone to all of the individuals, we would probably have expected to get the same type of response. Those who did come back to us represented a more than proportionate amount of the expenditure.