Mr. Pat Colgan:

Sub-measure 2.1 C of the INTERREG III programme had six telecommunications projects. Bytel was the only one that resulted in any significant problems. We have worked with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and DETI on other projects, in particular the Kelvin project. Kelvin was audited extensively by the European Court of Auditors. The court raised some queries and questions but we got a clean bill of health at the end of it. In the new programme period, that is, for the period 2007 to 2013, under INTERREG IV we have a new system whereby an independent external audit authority checks verifications and claims for expenditure.

It does an audit of what is happening in respect of those activities. There is a regulatory requirement that the error rate regarding these verifications and audits shall be no more than 2%. At present, our error rate is well below 1% and usually is approximately 0.05%. We have a very good track record with the Commission, with the audit authority and generally in respect of monitoring, managing and dealing with irregularities and any suspected fraud. I will make one further point, which Mr. Griffin also raised during his presentation, which is that had we known of this earlier - I think the cut-off date probably was in or around June 2009 - we would have been able to find a replacement project that could have absorbed this money and there would not have been any loss of European Union funding. This is something we have done in the past.