Mr. Ger Deering:

On the dispute resolution which was brought in from 1 February last year, we absolutely are meeting those targets. The next phase, which is the adjudication phase, has only started. It is a three year programme, and it is important to say that it will roll out. This year the focus will be on adjudication. We hope we will be able to come back to the committee and say we have met those targets, but it is too soon at the moment.

The Senator has reminded me of an important issue. We are running a legacy system. If we had set up a new organisation on 1 February last year, we would be in a great position and life would be simpler for everybody. We had 2,200 legacy complaints in the system when we started. We had to draw a line somewhere, so we said that from 1 February, any complaint coming in would go through the new process. The complaints already there are going through the old process. Sadly, I have to say that there are complaints in the old process which are still taking a considerable length of time, but if we did not set up the new process, everybody would still be in that situation.