Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The first element of the framework that we set out on page 32 is about the risks, costs and benefits. When we see a large severance payment, what we also want to see is some documentation of the risks, costs and benefits. What is the nature of the problem? How did it come about? What options do we have for everybody's benefit - for the organisation, the individual and so on? There needs to be a clear understanding of what the risks are in cases where, for example, somebody in charge of an operations area in a hospital or something of that nature is are not able to do the job. One cannot just throw them out on the street without looking to their welfare. It may be through no fault of their own that they are not able to do it anymore. One wants to try to find a way of arriving at that but one does not want to overpay for it either. That assessment of the risks, costs and benefits is where we would look to see that there had been due consideration of it. What we would not try to do is second-guess it. If the right people with the responsibility in the organisation have made the decision, then I am not going to say their judgment is right or wrong. That was part of the reason why I did not want to get into looking at the individual circumstances of individual cases. Sometimes one would need the wisdom of Solomon to make a call on it but it must be documented.