Dr. Fergal Lynch:

Whether the sum is €1 or €10,000, it is the principle that matters. It is a question of making absolutely sure that our systems are right.

The Deputy inquired about the building. The OPW rents the building. It is under that organisation.

The petty cash issue was of concern to us because it revealed that we failed to keep good records. It was extremely unsatisfactory. It meant that, while we are satisfied there is no suggestion of fraud in this particular case, there was a situation in which we did not have sufficiently good records to confidently state that this amount of money was accounted for, even though we believe that it has and have no reason to believe otherwise. We have radically reduced the amount of cash we use. In those days, it was to do with youth payments. In the early days, there would have been perhaps €20,000 or €30,000 on hand. We now have virtually nothing. We have reduced what we would have had on hand by something like 97%. We use almost no cash at this stage.