Mr. Paul Kiely:

Over the years, for the very reasons I have outlined, when cutbacks were imposed, staff would not have been sanctioned. The clinic, as a corporate entity in its own right, would have taken the decision to employ individuals over and above those funded by the Eastern Regional Health Board, the Health Service Executive or whoever was the paymaster at the time. In an effort to give the same terms and conditions to staff members working side by side in the same grade, we did not have access to the State pension fund. In the days when there was no access to the State pension fund and no grants coming from the Exchequer, the clinic had a private pension fund through Irish Pensions Trust.