Dr. Austin Byrne:

In any event, on where we stand, the IMO received an invitation at the end of December to re-involve itself in the negotiating of the contract under the 2013 framework agreement between the Department of Health, the HSE and the IMO. That is a legal document naming three parties. We sought clarification on what would be the situation if the terms were changed. The clarification we received from the Department of Health was that the IMO, the Department and the HSE would be negotiating under the framework agreement and that a second consultation process would take place between the National Association of General Practitioners, the Department of Health and the HSE.

That is the clarification we got.