Mr. John McCarthy:

I understand absolutely where the Chairman is coming from in terms of the protection of the public purse and the risk of exposing the State to any further liability arising out of this incident. As I said, I am aware that the Chairman raised the matter with my counterpart at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport last week.

The Department is restricted in the extent to which it can get involved in individual investigations. This does not apply to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I will follow up to ensure the committee receives a response setting out in detail when the report was requested and so on.

The issue of limiting the exposure of the State will be determined by what the investigation yields. If parties are identified as having acted illegally and can be pursued, it is open to the EPA or Meath County Council, depending on the level of illegality, to do so in a civil or criminal sense or both. It depends on the circumstances of the case and the parties involved.