Mr. Robert Watt:

There is a variety of issues. Mr. Paul Quinn has gone through where exactly it is justified and where it is not. Maybe the vast majority is justified; so be it.

Let me make a general point to show that we focus on the detail in the Department all the time. Excluding the An Post contract, €80 million is the amount we procured without a competitive competition. That is out of €9 billion in current procurement and several million euro in respect of capital. Around 0.1% of total procurement, excluding that one contract, was actually without competitive contract.

The Comptroller and Auditor General is happy that 99.9% of the contracts were procured in an open fashion in line with the circular. In the case of the €80 million, I have read very good reasons that there was not a competitive contract in the vast majority of cases. That is an example of the level of detail we go into in terms of each of the areas identified.