Mr. John McCarthy:

From the Department's point of view, we are anxious to close the tribunal off as soon as possible and, obviously, at as little further cost as possible. Unfortunately, we are, to some extent, in the hands of the speed with which applications are made to the tribunal for rulings in regard to whether costs are to be allowed and then in the hands of the submission of individual cost claims. On the basis of the information the tribunal has provided to us - again, it is subject to that sort of health qualification - of the overall €159 million, the tribunal's estimate would suggest to us that approximately €150 million should be expended by the end of next year, which would leave roughly €8 million to €9 million to be expended thereafter. How quickly thereafter will ultimately depend on the pace of rulings by the tribunal on cost orders and the actual submission of cost bills. As I understand it, I think a period of up to six years is allowed for the submission of those but we hope that process will move ahead quickly.

I should probably say that there is a number of legal proceedings still going on in regard to elements associated with costs in the tribunal, so again the resolution of those will obviously determine the speed with which the cases can be brought to finality.