Ms Marie Culliton:

It was indeed a political decision at the time. Laboratories in Ireland had been under-resourced for several years. Therefore, when the Irish laboratories were tendering for the services, they included the cost of achieving the accreditation standard, as well as the cost of building up the resources and the numbers needed to provide a service. I am also informed that one of the accredited laboratories which was part of a consortium was also required by its hospital board to include pension costs in the tender. They were total absorption costs, whereas the tendering commercial companies in the United States were absorbing the work into their existing systems. There is a suggestion that they may have been looking for it as a loss leader because they were aware of a political intent to look at outsourcing in general.