Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Devlin. I have a meeting at 11 a.m. and I have to attend for voting.

Let me focus on the point that Mr. McGrath made about us not being a party to the case. I want to focus on the transfer of €29 million from the insurance compensation fund and its use and security of costs in a case which involved no State parties, essentially, private parties, and the governance around that. I am not here to quiz anybody. The ultimate governance arrangements for the insurance compensation fund are the responsibility of the Oireachtas and my questions are trying to elicit what is clearly a governance gap in the insurance compensation fund. It was clear from the previous meeting that almost everybody in the room thought that the insurance compensation fund was somebody else's responsibility and, therefore, I want to focus on that.

The Insurance Act 1964 was there to ensure that policyholders who were left in the case of an insolvent insurance company were protected. My question is: what legal basis or section of the Insurance Act was used to release the funds of €29 million for security of costs by the President of the High Court? I might ask the Department first.