Mr. Seán Quigley:

We have external auditors. They are currently from Grant Thornton and others have done it in the past. We have representation from the National Treasury Management Agency on our investment committee and they would not stand over anything that was not up to scratch. What would go beyond our current action and fill the gap of the Comptroller and Auditor General if there is a constitutional impediment? We are happy to look at that. The main constraint on us is the publication of individual details. Individuals may argue they lost money but we can only provide details to the family. We cannot put that on the website so people can see how funds have performed. We could extend the remit of the auditors to examine a sample of cases but again we should consider where it would go. It is outside their remit now but we could look at it.

We come to this knowing we have no concerns and we have nothing to hide. The funds have performed exceptionally well by any benchmark so we would be happy to consider anything that can allay the concerns of the committee and bridge the gap where one might hear one thing and then another. There is a high level of independent scrutiny currently.