Ms Catherine Tarrant:

I want to address Senator John Dolan's question about our mandate being to act in the best interests of the taxpayer, and whether, if our remit was to act in the best interests of the health and well-being of the people of Ireland, that would leave us in a different place. Mr. Breen and I want to clarify that when we speak about our mandate being to act in the best interests of the taxpayer, that is very much the part of our job that focuses on an unjustly inflated claim that may be made by a patient's solicitor or, indeed, a patient's family's solicitor. Where we come from in that regard is to deal with the quantification of claims and to ensure unjustly inflated claims are weeded out.