Mr. Robert Watt:

I am not looking for sympathy. I do not care. This is the job. I am making a serious point. The committee members can dismiss this if they want but the way in which we interact with senior civil servants and the way in which the media deals with civil servants have an impact on attracting people to take up these jobs. That is all I am saying. I am not looking for sympathy and I do not really care but that is my sense of it.

If committee members do not believe me - they may not believe me - the next time Ms Fiona Tierney, head of the Public Appointments Service, is before the committee, the committee should ask her about the question and about her conversations with hundreds of candidates over a number of years. She will give the committee her view.