Mr. Tony O'Brien:

The committee has the report of the internal review panel. In the course of that review various cases were brought forward for the approval of various allowances or payments. Nobody made an argument for what is known as red circling or on the basis of a legal obligation to pay. Following the rejection of the individual business cases - in other words, the notion that this should be a permanently approved payment for the post in question - some of the agencies reverted to the position, in the light of that decision, that there was a legal problem.