Mr. Hamilton Goulding:

They were very eminent people who were qualified in the financial world. My unfortunate position is I do not have training and qualifications in finance and commerce, but others on the board did and, to be honest, I had great respect for their expertise. My assumption was that all was in order. Let me point out because it is very important to do so that while we look on these salaries as anomalies, the CRC's budgetary performance, efficiency and excellence in its international standing were supremely good. Within this we have the difficulty of a small number of individuals on high salaries. The board's objective, in the big sense, is to provide the best service for disabled people in Ireland and to do so very efficiently. We still believe we did so. This large achievement is universally recognised and accredited by client satisfaction surveys. The performance at the clinic has many good features to which I could point. To say these efficiencies are completely spoiled by one or two anomalies within them is a little unfair. That the senior salaries were not fully known to the board was an error of governance. Prior to the old board going we introduced new governance procedures which would have put an end to it. It was unsatisfactory and has come to an end. We hope this is the end of it.