Mr. David Moloney:

It would be a very extreme case in the sense that, for the most part, the role of a Secretary General is to implement Government and ministerial policy within the Department. The one place that has been identified as, potentially, giving rise to a conflict has always between the role of Secretary General and the role of Accounting Officer. When the Mullarkey Report, which dates back to the early 2000s, looked at that issue it suggested a process that could be adopted if a conflict arose between a Secretary General and what he or she perceived to be his or her role as Accounting Officer. Other than that, given that our job is to advise on policy and then implement the policy, I would not think that those conflicts would arise.