Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

There have been huge increases in claims and demands on processing times. There is even pressure on the types of claims that must be considered and the work that must go into that. For a period of time, there was an imbalance in terms of the focus being on claims progression rather than on recovery and control. Over the last year or so, we have been trying to redress that balance. We must do that by ensuring that people are appropriately trained and that vacancies are filled where possible and that people understand all elements of our business rather than just one. A great deal of training was carried out in 2011 and 2012 and it continues, particularly in the areas of guidelines, recovery and debt write-off. All of these areas have been developed and are being progressed following the publication of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.