Mr. Brian McHugh:

We have no reason to believe bid-rigging or cartel activities are not occurring in Ireland, given we see them in so many jurisdictions internationally. One of the big issues we faced as an organisation was the lack of a leniency programme in Ireland. As I mentioned, in the case of the big cartel cases in other European countries, most of them have come about because of leniency. We now have that and we think it will make a big difference.

In addition, other jurisdictions have screening and cartels have been identified through screening programmes, which is why we are here today. As I mentioned in my opening statement, detecting cartels is difficult. They are concealed very well, so we need all the tools we can get to be able to identify them.