Mr. Robert Watt:

The way the system would ultimately work is that for spending, which is allocated in the Vote and for which there is a clear purpose set out in Government policy, there is delegated authority to spend it obviously because money is being spent in line with what is voted and Government policy.

This spending was not approved or sanctioned. There was no spending here; it was a commitment and the details had to be worked through. The plan was that when the details had been finalised and we had a detailed set of proposals, we would then seek formal sanction in the normal way for the spending that would be part of the 2022 Estimates. As part of that, we would have to speak to the Health Research Board about how------