Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

Approximately a year ago a development company came forward to us making serious allegations around a small number of employees. We took those very seriously and we reported them to An Garda Síochána at the time. We have obligations under the Criminal Justice Act 2011 to report such allegations to An Garda Síochána, and there is an ongoing Garda investigation around this. I will make a few comments that are basically in the public domain. There are certain things that, obviously, I cannot cover, given that there is a Garda investigation and the fact that there is a number of ongoing High Court cases around this.

To elaborate a little further, in light of the allegations that were made by this developer, we initiated High Court action to get information that the developer may have had to substantiate the allegations that were made at the time. That process continued during last year. It is important to say that the reason that this ended up in the press is the action we took as a company to seek to get to the bottom of these allegations. That process is ongoing. Those court cases are not at an end at this stage. Of course we understand, looking at the history of the ESB, that ours is a company that depends on public trust and the trust of members of this committee and public representatives in general, and we protect that very dearly. If allegations have come forward, we have progressed them to get to the bottom of them. Ultimately, there is a Garda investigation ongoing, and we will have to keep an eye on developments as they progress over the coming months.