Mr. Tom Heffernan:

The system was put in place on foot of a policy decision. Taking that as the reality, as the Secretary General has said today, the anniversary of the system was the occasion on which his Minister committed to review it. It would be normal practice if one puts in place a new structure or system to evaluate its impact on services. Obviously the detail of that arrangement, as the Secretary General indicated, has yet to be worked out. That is a work in progress.

As far as the specifics of Sligo are concerned, I am not aware of the details but would say that if additional resources are being made available to assist a public body, it would not be unreasonable to expect that this would be linked to performances, to improving the financial management and the overall management of resources within the body. Again, without knowing the full details of the situation, from what I have heard from the Secretary General, the Department seems to be taking a reasonable approach.