Ms Geraldine Tallon:

We are awaiting a significant number of bills. The Mahon tribunal has cost the Department €101 million so far, but we estimate the overall cost to be €196 million or thereabouts. Since the publication of the report of the tribunal, the chairman has been ruling on the eligibility of third-party cost applications for the 2003 to 2008 period. We understand he has ruled on some two thirds of those applications. The number of claims the Department has received, at 22, represents approximately 14% of the claims that have thus far been deemed eligible, which, as I said, is some two thirds of the total. We can expect, therefore, that a significant number of bills are yet to be submitted. To reiterate, Judge Mahon has, as I understand it, ruled on two thirds of applications, of which less than one fifth have actually been presented to the State at this point.