Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

-----but we are sort of sitting outside waiting for financial statements to audit and, if one likes, to keep the process moving and to bring it up to date as quickly as possible. However, it requires the college to be in a position to produce a set of financial statements for us to audit and to be able to substantiate what is in those financial statements. That is the process of audit.

Obviously, we then look at propriety issues and so on. The longer distance it is to the year of account, the more opaque the thing becomes, the more difficult it is to get explanations, and the more difficult it is to do the audit. Also, the findings may be irrelevant by the time they come to the committee. It is a matter of ongoing concern for us, but I appreciate that the HEA is engaged with the college and the pressure needs to be kept up.