Mr. Tony O'Brien:

It is fair to say there is a mix of organisations funded under section 39 which include those which I would not call charities but which have the benefit of the charities exemption, charitable status, and other entities which are more commercial in nature. Therefore, there is a good spread of organisations among the 2,500 funded under section 39. For the purposes of competition and procurement, under the section the HSE is not an entity for the purposes of the legislation; therefore, we are not required, provided we are satisfied there is good value and so on, to enter into competitive procurement in the way we would in the case of some purely commercial services we purchase. There is a great variety of organisations of various scale doing a variety of things. The chief executive of the Rehab Group has just given a fair overall description of the diversity in the sector.