Ms Josephine Feehily:

I saw this as a positive intervention on my part. One of my compliance tools is to alert people to their obligations and then help them to comply. We got a significant reaction from a number of Departments which asked us to send Revenue officials to meet their officials and provide information sessions. We have done that for several Departments on foot of requests. I regard that as the correct way to proceed. We write to the Departments to tell them, in case they do not know, that they have a range of complicated obligations and they can read a variety of publications, and we also offer them our assistance. Quite a few of them took up our offer and we arranged information sessions for a number of Departments. That was the most positive outcome from my point of view.

We also have a positive engagement with some of the larger public authorities, for which we have put in place a central liaison to allow them to engage with us on a regular basis if they have a complex range of agencies under their control. I do not think I am breaching confidentiality by pointing out that we have centralised liaison arrangements with the HSE.