Ms Laura Burke:

The first element is that we get extensive legal advice. It is only acceptable where the parent company is of sufficient financial strength to guarantee and there is no risk to the EPA legally enforcing the guarantee where the parent company and its assets are based. It is not acceptable in the case of inevitable disclosures. In terms of assessing and agreeing the monitoring of a parental company guarantee, first of all, there is a financial assessment of the parent company guarantee and its relationship with the operator and there is a review of the corporate structure and audited accounts. It needs to be demonstrated that there is no legal obstacle preventing the parent company from entering into the guarantee or preventing the EPA from enforcing the guarantee so that is a review of the corporate constitutional documents and approvals. We then look at the execution of the guarantee along with ongoing demonstration of the financial strength of the parent company, including submission of financial and management accounts. We have extensive legal input into whether this is a suitable company to have a parental company guarantee.