Mr. Eamon O'Doherty:

I did not mean to say co-equal. If I said co-equal, I did not intend to. The Department’s chair is equal in responsibility, on the Department’s side. In other words, the chair, who is essentially the decision maker, can advise the group in a collaborative or collegial way about the situation in regard to certain processes and certain views the Department might have. On the question as to how the operation of the projects works, I am trying to control the resources and the groups in terms of how they are operating to plan. I report to the assistant secretary general, Mr. Colm Hayes. He is not on the project board, but we have both attended most of the project board meetings. The Secretary General, Mr. Brendan Gleeson, chairs that board and, importantly, is also the Accounting Officer for the Department. He has to make decisions that are not in the purview of the board. The working group's role is to bring recommendations to the board. It filters those recommendations to decide whether they should be made to the Minister of State. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, then receives recommendations from the board through the project board and Mr. Brendan Gleeson. It is the Minister of State's responsibility to make decisions. The Department, therefore, has an intricate role in working with the project board, through myself and through the assistant secretary general, Mr. Colm Hayes. It also advises the board of matters when needed.