Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

There is statement on internal financial control in the RTB 2016 report. I can read that paragraph for the committee, which states:

In 2016 the RTB incurred expenditure totalling €2.1 million in legal fees to a firm of solicitors where the relevant service had not been procured by way of a competitive process since 2011. The service wasn't put out to tender in 2016 because substantial legislative change in 2015 and 2016, and our use of insourced legal staff from the firm to work alongside RTB staff, created the risk that we would lose accumulated knowledge by changing supplier at a time when we had significant operational deliverables such as the roll out of Rent Pressure Zones.

The RTB is aware that this contract does not comply with guidelines and in 2017 intends to publish a request for tender under the Office for Government Procurement's legal services framework.