Professor Tom Collins:

Yes, I would not take it on if I felt we could not do that. It needs to be done quickly. I would be hopeful that it can be done. I would be concerned for the organisation, for staff members and, in particular, for people who are hard-working and doing their jobs, sometimes in difficult circumstances in the countryside, on riverbanks and in lakes. They have to feel secure in the organisation they are working in. They have to have confidence in all elements of it. They have to know that if their work is done competently and with integrity, that work is valued and appreciated and gives a return.

I am very concerned that we address the many issues that are in the organisation. It is without a doubt an organisation with very significant problems but they are not insurmountable and I am hopeful that we can address them. At least we now have a template in the form of the EY report. We have a shared awareness within the board, which is a small board, as the Deputy knows. There is a strongly shared commitment on the board to get this ship right and to deal with the problems as we have them. Some of them are historical and are very difficult to deal with but I always work on one principle, which I heard enunciated by a former chief inspector in the Department of Education, whose mantra to incoming inspectors consisted of two questions, namely, when did you hear about it, and what did you do about it? This new board has heard about it in the past month, since it has taken up position, and will be judged on what it does about it. We cannot do everything but we can certainly deal with the fundamentals.

The organisation needs confidence in it from its own staff as well as from its external stakeholders. That confidence has to be based on trust, on a sense of openness and a clarity that people do what they say. I hope we can do that.

It is not just an organisational change that is needed; a culture change, at the very core, is needed within the organisation. I hope we will be able to manage that. At least we have already named it.