Mr. Ted Owens:

The retirement of the co-ordinator on grounds of ill-health was approved on the basis of a letter from the co-ordinator's GP. I acknowledge that best practice would be to use an independent medical assessor, and the Department has issued guidelines to that effect. The retirement was sanctioned by the acting CEO while the investigation was pending. Perhaps that is not best practice but the files indicate that the acting CEO acted legal advice as to the best course of action. The investigator interviewed all of the parties concerned except the co-ordinator, who went out on ill-health grounds and did not engage with the investigator. A decision had to be made on whether to bring the investigation to a halt, and it was eventually brought to a halt.