Professor Nick Hardwick:

We are not clear about in what way or purpose; we do not understand what that means. There are two things. First, no individuals are referred to in any way that we think can be interpreted as critical in the report, apart from possibly the chair and the director, and we had detailed meetings with both of them. If there is someone else they think might not have been given an opportunity to respond, we do not know who that person could be. If we were told, we would be happy to consult with him or her.

There is a second issue. Our contract made a commitment for us to share our findings. It was not to consult about the report but to tell them what we had found, with the staff and other stakeholders at Oberstown. We repeatedly said that we could not do that yet that needed to be arranged through Oberstown. Of course we could not share our findings if our findings were not in the public domain.