Mr. Paul O'Toole:

Birr was chosen as the site for a FÁS head office on the back of the decentralisation decision in 2004. FÁS acquired a temporary premises in, I think, 2007 and began the process of putting some people into it. It took a ten-year lease on a building in Birr and it equipped and fitted out that building to operate as a temporary premises for the ten-year period. In 2010, the then Government indicated that some of the functions would be split off and in July 2011, the current Government decided on the winding down of FÁS and the establishment of SOLAS. In February 2012, the Government decided that the decentralisation in respect of FÁS was to be discontinued. We had a five-year break clause on the lease in 2012.

We took the option to close the operation because we believed it to be the most commercially sensible thing to do at the time as we did not require the out office. This entailed writing off the accumulated fitting costs carried in our books. It was a sunk cost at the time. We have saved the rent and operation costs for five years and we believe on balance it was the correct decision to take and hence the charge arose.