Ms Mary Higgins:

The Department of Education and Skills. It said the accommodation was temporary and that we would need to find alternative accommodation. We spoke to the OPW and reviewed a few places that might work. For one reason or another, they did not.

The Department then suggested that we did not need to go through the OPW and that we could go out and look commercially. We sourced a building. It is on Talbot Street, which is why it is referred to in the minutes. That was approved by the board. It was approved in principle by the Department. Fitting out needed to be done. I should not use the word "mess-up" but it took a long time, there was to'ing and fro'ing and we lost the architects we had to do the fit-out. In the end, the premises would have been too small for us considering our current size. We lost that premises.

The premises issue went away for a little while. The premises we are in is very shabby and is quite unpleasant. We continued looking for accommodation on and off and then the board - not being keen on the idea of having to spend money on rent, because we were rent free, presumably because there was a temporary arrangement, rather than anything else, that continued on - agreed that we would invest, together with the OPW, in the building we were in. Some painting and decorating took place. We also replaced some of the furniture, knowing that wherever we were going to go, it could come with us. It was, therefore, not going to be a waste of money.

Shortly after we had done that, we were informed by the OPW that the lease on the building had expired and that it was not going to renew it. That was last May. We were given notice to quit, effectively. What happened was that the lease was extended for a year, and then the OPW undertook to find us premises together with the other people in the building. It has done this. I refer to the premises now under consideration. We negotiate and work in very close contact with the Department of Education and Skills so we are not going off doing things that are not known to it.

In respect of the lease not being approved by the Department, there is no lease at the moment. We are in negotiations and know where the premises are and how much it will cost but because of some legal thing that is going on between the owner of the property and the OPW, we do not have a lease and in that context, the Department cannot sign a lease and we cannot present it to it. That is the issue. That is a potted history of our premises, if that makes sense to people.