Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

It goes back quite a number of years and relates to the application of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, cuts. Initially the advice that the organisation received from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was that certain allowances were not to be included in the cuts and subsequently it was determined that they should have been included in the cuts but in the meantime, the staff had continued to receive salaries at the higher level. This matter has been to and fro between the organisation and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform over a number of years. At one point - and this is why they recognised a debtor - they were going to recover the payments from the staff but then it was determined after industrial relations negotiations that it would not be recovered. Technically they have to write off the debt that they had previously recognised, so it is quite messy. However, at the end of the day, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has decided that collection is not required.