Mr. Paddy Howard:

Speaking on behalf of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, when we approached this matter we were responsible for PPP policies. When one is assembling a policy one has in mind a certain objective to achieve. There are other blocks of policy and systems that are in place with which one does not interfere or disapply. The particular issue about which the Senator is talking relates to how processes operate when companies are wound up.

That is an issue for company law. The PPP process is not going to change or alter the level of priority that attaches in those cases. I am not an expert in those cases. I would take it that if one had an insolvency lawyer, he or she would very clearly explain the issues. Again, it is that point of not wanting to raise false expectations for people or anything else; that is just a block of law of what happens in that situation. It does not fall within the remit of PPP policy. To be fair to the NDFA, it does not fall within the remit of the management of an individual project.