Mr. Diarmuid O'Flynn:

It was from not the Ballyhea group. A case has been heard before the Supreme Court, but a verdict on the point I mentioned about the use of historical valuations for their assets has not yet been delivered. There is a major difference in that respect. Accounting standards were changed and international accounting standard, IAS, 39 was introduced here in 2005. Under the accounting standards, it allowed bodies to use historical valuations. If one had a property, one could have used a mortgage valuation from two or three years previously. That is a standard, but there is major difference between a standard and the law. Where there is a difference between a professional accounting standard and the law, the law takes precedence. The official said that in Britain in 95% of cases - Deputy Michael McGrath is an accountant and will understand this - if one went by the standards, one would also be complying with the law. If one was to give a lower value to one's house which had appreciated in value, one would not be misrepresenting it in the sense that somebody might be investing in it. However, in this case they were overstating the value of what they had on their books by a ratio of almost 2:1.