Dr. Fergal Lynch:

Our sense of it is that there is so much to be done in terms of improving the system, and changing everything else to do it, that we have got to move quickly. We think the fastest way of doing this in terms of achieving the other improvements is to make the other changes we need to make and then when they are made, include things like the qualifications and training requirements for GALs, the selection system for GALs, better data, good training and all of the other components that we have described.

If we try to do that and move to a public body immediately, I think that it would take us longer. Our sense of it was that if we could fix all those components of it, and put a service provider in place who becomes expert at dealing with all of the issues that I have just described, that faster progress would be made. I think that is what the Government has decided.