Mr. Robert Watt:

I do not want to get into this issue but I will explain now, since you have pressed me.

The Minister was away in America and his machine or computer was hacked. There was, actually, an email with a one-page attachment setting out the €2 million and saying, look we are going to do this but we could not send. Then, four or five days later, the machine got up and the Minister was available again and whatever. We did not communicate with him. We should have. So there was a technical issue, which got in the way. I have not spoken about this before because that sounds like making excuses but that is actually what happened.

There was a note, which our intention was to share with the Minister but, unfortunately, he was away, and his system got corrupted, and then it slipped our mind to give him the detail. Nonetheless, the substance of it is still the case. When it came to the actual commitment of funds subsequently - and I stressed this with Deputy Doherty - that from the time the letter of intent was signed to the finalised agreement and subsequent decision, the Minister, of course, would have been involved before there was any legal commitment of public funding, and that would have been the intention.