Mr. Seán Quigley:

The Courts Service was before the PAC in 2001, and we accepted at that point that the Comptroller and Auditor General would audit these funds. The problem is that there is a legislative barrier in that the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993 specifically precludes it. The legislation has to be changed. That is not something that we control. We do not control changing that legislation. My colleague from the Department of Justice and Equality may want to elaborate on that.

On the issue of lower risk and the comments by Ms Justice Mary Irvine, a feature of a number of cases is that the courts have taken a significantly different approach to determining the levels of awards, and a much lower rate of return has been applied. That has been the case only in recent years, and it is predicated on the requirement to introduce legislation for periodic payments. That is a position that has been taken relatively recently in determining awards but that was not the situation prior to 2015, I believe, when the Gill Russell case established the practice.