Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I will answer that question. What we thought about the year ahead is what was set out in the service plan. As Mr. Desmond said, there are certain legal parameters around that. We have sought in each year to be as clear as practicable about what the risks are in the delivery of the service, and then we engage on and report on that. We are very clear that our job is to provide the maximum amount of safe services, to try to have a continual and sustainable improvement in those services and to do that within the resources available. We have not managed to do that for a number of years at a significant level. That is acknowledged as a fact. With regard to the analogy with the private sector, and I am not saying the Deputy is doing this, there is significant evidence which shows that the authorisation environment in the public sector is not the same as the private sector.