Mr. Joseph Nugent:

It is important to stress that these recommendations that are in place will be implemented by the middle of this year. It is important to send that message to the public that the trust in the college and the financial controls that are necessary to run a modern institution are resolved and will be in place by the middle of this year.

As the Commissioner has said, the Commissioner directed that the interim recommendations in the report - and if I can, Chairman, I shall make a brief sidebar on this piece - were implemented before the finalisation of that audit report. I will explain the timeline on that in a moment. What does that mean? It means that the report arrived formally at the audit committee last week. In the intervening period when the draft had been prepared work had commenced on resolving the issues. We absolutely take them most seriously. There is a dedicated team in place to resolve these issues. They report directly to me and will report directly to me until such time as the recommendations are finalised. I commit to the Commissioner that that will be done by the middle of this year.

I will explain the timeline between the two pieces because I think it has been a matter of public comment. A draft report was presented to the Commissioner in or around the end of August last year. The normal process associated with those audits is that individuals who have an interest in this matter have the opportunity to make comments. Given the number of people involved that meant the report could not be finalised until relatively recently.

Deputy Farrell has raised some very serious questions. I am conscious of other issues that are on. I am more than happy to brief the committee, individually or collectively, around this issue. We can get more information on that at a later date, if that would help.