Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I know where the Deputy is going. Prior to agreeing to attend the conference and to the company paying the costs thereof, I took advice from our legal and procurement services to ensure that doing so was in order. I have no direct dealings with that company. I do not know which of our hospitals it supplies and I have no involvement in the procurement processes. I believed it to be a worthwhile conference, given the range of participants, the subject matter and the other speakers. My choice was on whether it would be reasonable for the HSE, à lathe taxpayer, or the company to bear the expense of my attendance. Given the fact that the company had paid the expenses of every other speaker at that conference, I felt that it was reasonable to do that. I still feel that it was reasonable.