Mr. Paul Kiely:

Yes. The Irish Pensions Board set a task for all funds in Ireland to meet the minimum funding proposal, a minimum funding standard. It went on for a couple of years because the Irish Pensions Board kept shifting the due date for submissions to be made to it. Eventually, maybe a year and a half ago, there was a window of opportunity whereby the Pensions Board set a date. The Central Remedial Clinic's advisers on its pension fund, Irish Pensions Trust, took the opportunity of putting together an application in order that the clinic could address the deficit in the pension fund for the Pensions Board. The proposal had to be balloted on by the staff because it entailed doubling the rate of contribution of staff to the fund. In and around 70 staff members were affected. The 70 staff members were balloted. The partnership arrangement to meet the minimum funding standard by 2017 meant that the individuals had to increase their rate of contribution. They had to double their rate of contribution. The clinic had to increase its rate of contribution by 2.5% and put in a lump sum which was actuarially calculated. Consider the reason the books show the transfer of the €3 million. The €3 million was the lump sum that went in for those 70 individuals because it was unanimously accepted by the staff to protect their pensions. They were delighted that the clinic was standing up to take this responsibility on board and address the deficit. With regard to the reason it was put in is as a loan, there are other contributing factors in the performance of pension funds. One of the performance indicators is the rate at which the investment, the underlying assets of the pension fund perform in the years up to the date set to reach solvency within the fund. Rather than gift the €3 million, the advice from both the actuary, Irish Pensions Trust, and our own financial auditors was that, should the performance of the underlying assets be in excess of what was expected within the plan to become solvent by 2017, a repayment of that money could be made to the Friends and Supporters of the Central Remedial Clinic. One will just have to wait until 2017 to see how the pension fund assets perform before determining whether anything will be due back. One way or the other, the board of the clinic took the decision that because it had a liability, it would address it in partnership with the members of the scheme. That is what it did.