John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)

Mr. Doherty made reference to the chair of the board writing to him with specific directions on who should be paid first and that it should not be the agencies which provided the staff being relied on to keep the critical services running or the contractors working to rectify fire safety issues. That is quite concerning. Mr. Doherty might just inform the committee about fire safety. Obviously, there were 2,000 service users across 1,000 units. When I hear the words “fire safety”, it sets off alarm bells, to say the least. What action was taken in terms of paying those contractors to ensure that critical work was allowed to continue and be completed?