Mr. John Horgan:

To clarify, I understood Deputy Troy stated that €14 million had been wasted. That is not true.

The Deputy alleged that I prevented board members from meeting the managing director. That is not true. Such a meeting took place yesterday. All board members are treated equally and it has never been alleged to me by any board member that he or she was not treated equally. The law requires that all board members have exactly the same duties and responsibilities and that requirement has been scrupulously observed in Bord na Móna.

There are not 300 bullying cases in process or anything like that figure. I do not know the actual number that are in process at the moment. Procedures are in place for dealing with employees' grievances and there are many different ways of doing so, including through the trade unions and grievance procedures. There is also an employee assistance programme. These procedures are standard or better than in most of Irish industry and are operated fairly and impartially.

To respond to Deputy Lowry, as the Deputy stated, most of his points were political. As such, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on them. I do not have a note of any specific question he raised that I can answer. If I inadvertently missed a factual question, I will be pleased to answer it. If it is an opinion, I respect the Deputy's opinion but-----