Ms Breda Power:

In looking at the delay in processing the witness statement, it must be considered in the context of the overall staffing reductions in the division, and particularly the senior principal officer who was dealing with this issue on a day-to-day basis prior to his retirement in 2011. When the witness statement was submitted in December 2012, it was, as outlined earlier, in the context of us processing the companies Bill prior to its publication. It was also in the context of a considerable legislative programme and EU agenda. Since 2012 we have processed five Bills and, if one includes the Companies Bill 2012, that is six Bills in that period of time, and almost 40 pieces of secondary legislation.

To go back to the question about when it was processed, it was processed during the course of 2013 and 2014. There was no other official in the division at the time who was familiar with the section 19 investigation. The officials who had been dealing with it prior to that had all since retired for a number of years. The work on enforcement had transferred to the ODCE when that body was established in 2001 and there was very little expertise in the division on enforcement and on this particular piece of work but it has to be considered in the context of the wider agenda that we were facing in the division.