Ms Eileen Creedon:

When my budget was reduced from €11.85 million to €9.6 million I immediately anticipated that there would be a difficulty. A greater reduction had been proposed but I engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform at that stage to indicate that, from my best estimate of what was then going through the office, the reduced amount would probably not meet my budget. I expressed reservations about meeting my requirements but we were going through particular difficulties at that time and that was the allocation that was given to me.