Professor Brian MacCraith:

Regarding the issue of independence, the only experience we can give is our experience to date. It is the consensus view of the body that if we had an issue with that, it would have been reflected in our contribution to any modification to this Bill. I also referenced our operational practice in terms of good governance. When there is any declaration of conflict of interest, we act on that. In this particular case, I asked the Secretary General to leave the meeting room until that matter was addressed. In our experience over the past ten months or so, we have managed that and have not felt constrained in terms of our independence.

The second question concerned an extra member. We have already looked at the issue and have some possibilities in mind. We would like a senior member of a defence force internationally with experience of similar transformations. We think that sort of person would bring a context, vision, experience and expertise that is quite specific. We have identified a small number of those. As we are at the early stage of discussions with some of those individuals, I cannot name them.

If we could get one of those people, it would really add significantly to the insights and the progress we can make more rapidly as a result. As I said earlier, this is not reinventing the wheel but learning from best practice with someone who can work side by side with us. We are already seeing that to some extent with Ms Sam des Forges from the UK Ministry of Defence, but I am thinking of someone who has been in the Defence Forces and understands all of that, but has led transformation and experienced it. We are looking both in Europe and further afield on those. We have a small number. It is in our minutes from previous meetings that we have discussed this. We are due to have a discussion with one of those individuals in the coming weeks.