Ms Eileen Creedon:

Thank you, Chairman. I would like to say that under no circumstances is it my intention to in any way be unhelpful to the committee or to obstruct its work. I am fully cognisant of the function, importance and duty of the committee to examine matters of this kind. I am also fully cognisant of the right of the committee and the taxpayer to examine issues where taxpayers' money may be seen to be at a loss or misspent in any way. I fully appreciate that.

As the committee members might be aware, litigation has issued in this case and as Chief State Solicitor I am responsible for the carriage of the case. In keeping my focus on value for the taxpayer and recovering in this case, my primary focus is the safe carriage of the proceedings through the courts. I am conscious that if I discuss the matter in public or otherwise and prejudice those proceedings, I am therefore prejudicing the likelihood of making a recovery for the taxpayer in this case. That is the purpose and function of the provisions in the 1997 Act to which I have referred. It is a long established principle that officers of the Attorney General's office, of which I am one, confine their comments to matters touching on the administration of the office for that reason. I fully accept that the recommendation made by the Comptroller and Auditor General to me in terms of risk management touches on the administration of the office. I fully accept that I need to take on board those recommendations and fully respond to them. I have no difficulty at all with that. My only difficulty with the discussion of the case, as I have set out in previous correspondence to the committee, is the timing of it and the fact that it could, without any shadow of a doubt, prejudice the chances of us successfully pursuing the litigation to make a recovery.