Mr. James Clarke:

I sit on the Citizens Information Board, CIB, of which Ms Mangan is chairperson. I did not refer to it today but I am absolutely shocked and amazed to hear Ms Mangan say to this committee that there is a cost-benefit analysis available and that the board made a decision last Wednesday and that cost-benefit analysis was not made available to it. I do not understand that. If one is to be fair to a board it should be given all the information so that it can make an informed decision.

The CEO spoke about complaints in a broad-brush way. I can make as many complaints about CIB as she has made. I can talk about correspondence unanswered for months or issues not dealt with. At the moment the MABS have no service agreement with CIB. It is paying out public funds without service agreements in place. These are the people who talk about governance. The last agreement expired on 31 December. We raised this with CIB in March 2016 to ensure that a service agreement would be in place. We have met CIB twice since January and it takes the line it is our way or no way.