Ms Rachel Downes:

I can explain how the process works with cheques. Caranua uses a third party company and Caranua's name is not on the cheques. As Mr. Fitzpatrick said, the cheques are sent to the survivors and accounted for as part of our normal expense. It is quite common for a survivor to send a cheque back in order to get the supplier name changed or when the cheque has expired. As Mr. Fitzpatrick said, there is a process in place to do regular checks with people but we cannot make the survivor lodge a cheque in a particular period. It has been running into the millions of euro over the years where cheques have had to be cancelled and reissued, with a follow-up required. It is the nature of the process.

This year in particular the issue has been very complex because of the Covid-19 restrictions. The committee will see it again next year and there will be much toing and froing where cheques have been provided but not utilised.