Mr. Mark Griffin:

There were similar issues in 2018. There were contracts that related to the national broadband plan. I think we may have started our first extension of the NDRC at that stage. Some of the contracts called out in 2019 were also the contracts that were the start of the difficulty, for want of a better term, and commenced in 2018. We have done a lot since then, and that is the key piece from a governance perspective. We have a procurement unit, we have updated our guidelines, we have a procurement toolbox for staff, we have 190 staff who went on training and we have a help desk in place. We see that reflected in a far healthier position in 2020, looking at the Circular 40/02 cases. We had 11 non-compliant contracts compared with the 36, but their value is substantially lower. It is €1.6 million. At the risk of my coming back this time next year and being quizzed on the same issue, I am quite confident about the work that has been done in 2019 in terms of elevating this as an issue within the Department. It is obviously deeply uncomfortable for me to come before the Committee of Public Accounts to explain this. Elevating the issue, training people, a very good procurement unit in the Department under-----