Mr. Mark Griffin:

If the Deputy will permit, I will take the recommendations the Comptroller and Auditor General set out in his report, which the Department found very useful and instructive in assisting us in shaping the next procurement contract. He made three recommendations. The first was the terms of reference for the emergency services group. We have put in place formal consolidated terms of reference which have been presented to the emergency services group and which will be finalised at the next meeting of the group in the coming weeks. The group is now chaired at principal officer level in the Department and formal minutes of the meetings are being recorded. That is progress in terms of some of the governance deficiencies the Comptroller and Auditor General identified.

In terms of the annual review, perhaps we lost sight of that as an issue because our main focus was on identifying whether the system was performing to the key performance indicators, KPIs, outlined in the concession agreement. We got monthly reports from BT. They were assessed and they determined that the KPIs were being met. Notwithstanding that, we have put in place an arrangement for an annual report to be prepared. It is drafted and will be finalised and signed off during the course of this month.

On the National Development Finance Agency issue, notwithstanding the fact that this was a complicated enough procurement process, the view taken at the time was that the cost of the contract was likely to be less than €20 million. The NDFA was not consulted because the procurement process concluded at around €11 million. However, as a matter of process, we will ensure that when we go back out to the market for the next concession agreement, the NDFA will be consulted. We give a commitment to that.