Mr. Jim Nugent:

We came here today in a voluntary capacity, very willingly and with the intention of telling the story in what we believe is a balanced and fair way. The board of the HSE has always been a stakeholder with us. The services that we provide are, as the Deputy rightly said, well funded by the HSE and the Department of Health. Everyone is very conscious that it is public money. In anything we did in terms of finding the best candidate to fulfil the position of CEO that arose, we did not set out to run a cavalier show at all - quite the opposite, in fact. There was great concern about how we were doing it and that is why we had an expert from outside to oversee what we were doing. The board of the CRC at the time, as I said earlier, sought to protect the ethos and something of the independence of the organisation.