Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I have the advantage of having been in NESC for ten years in the 1980s and 1990s so I have an idea of how it operates in terms of constituencies and the presentation paper. We had a broad discussion about largely the plan of action or the development in the same way as it had been asked to look at national and international practice. The point I made to it was that there was no point in me doing or proposing things that were directly in contravention with what it was saying. Second, I also said that I did not necessarily see anything it might be doing as preventing me from practically putting in place measures. The role of the NESC involves having a policy oversight not just of what might be happening in the midlands but what might also have a national effect in other areas of the country where there are specific challenges around this.